Benchmarks continue weak trade

Indian benchmarks have slumped after opening marginally in green in late morning session due to sustained selling by funds amid a weak trend in Asian regions. Markets seem volatile as Markets Participants are speculating ahead of the monthly inflation data for February due to be released today. The WPI inflation data will be crucial ahead of the RBI's monetary policy review next week. On the global front, most of the Asian equity indices are trading in the negative terrain, as traders continued to book profit following recent gains that have been fuelled by growing confidence in the global economy.

Back home, the traders were seen selling stocks in Consumer Durables, Auto and Bankex sector. In scrip specific development, Telecom stocks  were  trading  under pressure  after the government said that the country’s five leading telecom operators understated revenue by nearly Rs 11,000 crore during two financial years and have been asked to pay additional licence fees. Jewellery stocks like Gitanjali Gems, Rajesh Exports, Shree Ganesh Jewellery and Tara Jewels edged lower awaiting guidelines from the Government to implement the provisions of the recently amended Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

In scrip specific actions, Maruti Suzuki soared on report that the company is likely to begin construction of its Gujarat plant in the first quarter of the next fiscal and is awaiting a final nod in the upcoming board meeting in April. National Aluminium slipped ahead of its share sale which is due on Friday. Kennametal India slumped after foreign parent firm set Rs 435 per share as floor price for paring its stake through an offer for sale to comply with listing norms. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading just above their psychological 5800 and 19200 levels respectively.

The market breadth on BSE was showing negative trend with advances to declines in ratio of 784: 1300.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19285.44, down by 77.11 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 19419.11 and 19179.33. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.52% and Small cap index was down by 0.45%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durables down by 1.54%, Auto down by 0.85%, Bankex down by 0.70%, Metal down by 0.49% and TECK down by 0.44%, while there were no gainers on the BSE.

The top losers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto was down by 2.34%, Gail India was down by 2.31%, Bharti Airtel was down by 2.27%, Tata Motors was down by 1.83%, and ICICI Bank was down by 1.36%.

On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.46%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.76%, BHEL up by 0.48%, SBI up by 0.46% and Coal India up by 0.33% were the gainers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, In move to facilitate measures to boost exports, which has been impacted by global slowdown, the Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma held consultations with exporters, ahead of the next Foreign Trade Policy (FTP). The annual FTP is expected to be announced in the beginning of April soon after the Commerce Department finalizes incentives and measures to boost exports.

After the meeting, Sharma said, we had three rounds of consultations with the industry bodies including CII, FICCI and FIEO over the policy and all exports council’s recommendations are with us. Now we will chair a high-level Board of Trade (BOT) meet on March 22 to review export performance. After that we will start working to give the final shape to this year’s FTP.

The government is looking at ways to increase exports through the FTP to bridge the growing deficits in the trade and the current account and bring the balance of payment under control. The commerce ministry is also examining a number of proposals from the industry that include extending direct cash incentives to exporters of a larger number of products to targeted markets.

Meanwhile, exports have declined by 4 percent to $265.95 billion during April-February 2013. Imports during the 11-month period grew by a mere 0.25 percent to $448 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $182.1 billion in the 11-month period of the fiscal. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,819.10 down by 32.10 points or 0.55% after trading in a range of 5,863.80 and 5,791.75. There were 11 stocks advancing against 39 declines on the index.

The only gainers of the Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 1.47%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.62%, BHEL up by 0.56%, SBI up by 0.51% and Ambuja Cement up by 0.45%.

On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 2.19%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.17%, GAIL down by 2.06%, Tata Motors down by 1.81% and HDFC Bank down by 1.65%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Hang Seng declined 118.21 points or 0.52% to 22,438.44, Jakarta Composite tumbled 64.35 points or 1.33% to 4,771.09, KLSE Composite dipped 4.33 points or 0.26% to 1,641.89, Straits Times slipped 9.20 points or 0.28% to 3,279.90, KOSPI Composite dropped 7.38 points or 0.37% to 1,991.86 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 36.10 points or 0.45% to 7,959.14.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite rose 3.15 points or 0.14% to 2,267.12 and Nikkei 225 was up by100.32 points or 0.82% to 12,339.98.