Weak trade persist; Nifty below 5,900 mark

Indian equity markets trimmed losses but continued weak trade in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline counters and taking cues from European counterpart, which made a soft start. The sentiments on the street turned into pessimistic mood after Standard & Poor's stated that the economic support for India’s sovereign ratings has weakened somewhat given the sluggish growth in the country. The agency added that the recently unveiled government budget showed fiscal prudence, but higher spending targets posed a risk. Traders were seen piling some position in Consumer Durables, IT and TECK sector, while selling was witnessed in Realty, Bankex and Oil & Gas sector. In the scrip specific development, Videocon Industries was trading in green on reports that the state-owned oil & gas producers ONGC and Oil India have bid for a 20% stake in the Mozambique's Rovuma oil & gas field. Jubilant Food Works too was trading firm after foreign brokerage firm Deutsche Bank raised its target price on the company. Bharti Airtel was trading in red after the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) ordered the company to stop providing 3G roaming in 3 days. Top private sector lenders ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank were seen trading in red on reports that the government is investigating the allegations of money laundering practices. An online magazine, Cobrapost, yesterday claimed that it has captured the money laundering racket run by these banks on video tapes.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading on a mixed note, while the European markets were trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 5,900 and 19,500 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1095:1582 while 134 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,459.92, down by 110.52 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 19,673.16 and 19,390.46. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.

The broader indices too surrendered to the selling pressure; the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index were trading lower by 0.30% and 0.44% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 2.15%, IT up by 0.49%, TECk up by 0.23%, Health Care up by 0.22%, while Realty down by 1.94%, Bankex down by 1.27%, Oil & Gas down by 1.18%, Auto down by 0.56% and Metal down by 0.47% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 1.14%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.13%, Infosys up by 1.04%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.86% and Cipla up by 0.65%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 3.30%, Tata Motors down by 2.38%, RIL down by 1.82%, Gail India down by 1.62% and HDFC Bank down by 1.17% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily has said that the government is working towards making the country self-sufficient for its petroleum needs by 2030. After signing an MoU with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) for setting up a state-of-art refinery in Rajasthan he said ‘the government is working with a program that by 2020, 50 per cent of import of petroleum should be stopped and 75 percent imports should be stopped by 2025, further the country should become self-sufficient in petroleum by 2030’.

The oil minister emphasized that India has the potential inside to reduce its dependence on oil import which could help the country to come out of poverty as we spend huge money on oil import.

HPCL and the Government of Rajasthan have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at Jaipur for setting up a refinery-cum-petrochemical complex in Barmer, Rajasthan. The project will be a joint venture between HPCL and Rajasthan State Refinery, apart from other equity partners. The refinery having a capacity of 9 MTPA will be set up with an estimated capital investment of Rs 37,320 crore by 2016-17.

Presently, over 80 percent of India's requirements of petroleum products are met through the import and has become a worrying aspect for the country as the major share of the country's foreign exchange earnings are spent on oil import. India spent a staggering $ 160 billion to import crude oil in FY12, which was more than half of the country's total earnings from exports during the same period.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,890.45, down by 18.50 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 5,945.65 and 5,861.00. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Siemens up by 5.50%, IDFC up by 2.62%, Asian Paints up by 1.99%, Kotak Bank up by 1.86% and Ranbaxy up by 1.84%.

On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 3.25%, DLF down by 2.79%, Tata Motors down by 2.49%, JP Associates down by 2.03% and Reliance Industries down by 1.79% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading on a mixed note; KLSE Composite dipped 0.55%, Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.31%, Hang Seng inched lower by 0.38% and KOSPI Composite declined 0.78%.

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite gained 1.30%, Straits Times added 0.12%, Shanghai Composite rose 0.36% and Nikkei 225 was up 1.45% were the gainers.

The European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC 40 lost 0.32%, Germany’s DAX descended 0.10% and United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.05%.