Benchmarks trade in the red; Metal, PSU decline

Indian benchmarks continued to trade in the red in late morning session after opening gap down due to sustained selling by funds amid a weak trend in Asian regions. Domestic investors have remained cautious ahead of the Reserve Bank policy .On the global front, All the Asian equities were trading in the negative terrain at this point of time as investors remained concerned that an unparallel levy on bank deposits in Cyprus will reignite the euro zone debt crisis. While, the US markets declined on Friday, losing their gaining streak on report of a drop in consumer confidence. 

Back home, the traders were seen piling up positions in FMCG and Consumer Durables while selling was seen in, Metal, PSU and Realty sector. In scrip specific development, Sugar stocks such as Dhampur Sugar Mills, Rana Sugars, Triveni Engineering & Industries, Dwarikesh Sugar Industries, Sakthi Sugars, Bajaj Hindusthan , Shree Renuka Sugars , Balrampur Chini Mills , EID Parry (India), Simbhaoli Sugar Mills , KCP Sugar & Industries Corporation  and Eastern Sugar & Industries , edged higher on media report that the Union Cabinet is likely to meet today, to consider partial decontrol of the sugar sector. ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank edged lower as finance ministry and the RBI started  investigating allegations of money laundering practices at these top private sector lenders. BPCL, HPCL and IOC declined after Indian Oil Corporation slashed petrol price by Rs 2 per litre excluding VAT with effect from midnight of March 15, 2013, while there was no hike in diesel prices.

In scrip specific actions, Bharti Airtel slumped after the department of telecommunications (DoT) has asked to stop 3G services within three days in the seven circles it does not have the required licences. National Aluminium Company (Nalco) tumbled after the government received poor response from the investors for its share sale on Friday. The stock is currently trading below its floor price of Rs 40 per share fixed by the government for offer-for-sale (OFS). Coal India dropped on reports that the government is quickly pushing ahead a blockbuster share sale of Rs 20,000 crore by offloading 10% equity in Company to meet half of the disinvestment target of 2013-14 in one stroke.

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 693: 1214.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19283.19, down by 144.37 points or 0.74% after trading in a range of 19317.88 and 19232.23. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.48% and Small cap index was down by 0.60%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, FMCG up by 0.32%and Consumer Durables up by 0.17% while Metal down by 2.41%, PSU down by 1.57%, Realty down by 1.39%, Bankex down by 1.27% and Power down by 0.88% were the losers on the BSE.

The few gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 1.17%, Sun Pharma up by 0.79%, Cipla up by 0.42% , L&T up by 0.26% and ITC up by 0.07%.

On the flip side, Coal India was down by 5.77%, Bharti Airtel was down by 3.05%,  ICICI Bank was down by 2.71%, Sterlite Industries was down by 2.57% and Tata Power was down by 2.55% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, as per a Boston Consultancy Group (BCG) report, India may become the fifth-largest manufacturing nation from its current ninth position if its manufacturing sector is able to contribute upto 25 percent of GDP. The National Manufacturing Policy, which was unveiled in October 2011, proposes that India's manufacturing sector should increase its share of GDP from current 15 percent to 25 percent by the year 2022.

BCG, in its report titled `People Productivity-Key to Indian manufacturing competitiveness' has said that Indian manufacturing sector has not been growing with its requisite potential and its share of GDP has remained relatively flat for over two decades because of poor productivity.  The manufacturing sector has grown at marginal 0.9 percent in Apr to February period of this fiscal.

The report also expressed the need for an improvement in people productivity and said that Indian manufacturing sector to work toward enhancing it. It added that poor job offerings, lack of glamour quotient and lack of awareness for manufacturing jobs are some of the reasons behind students' dropping interest in working for manufacturing companies. However, to improve the people productivity, in the longer term, the manufacturing firms need to work on developing a more conducive working atmosphere, providing better employee experience, and repackaging job offerings to suit students' expectations

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,831.40 down by 41.20 points or 0.70% after trading in a range of 5,842.45 and 5,814.35. There were 10 stocks advancing against 40 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were HCL Tech up by 1.07%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.01%, Lupin up by 0.99%, Cairn up by 0.96% and Sun Pharma up by 0.77%.

On the flip side, Coal India down by 6.11%, ICICI Bank down by 2.79%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.47%, Tata Power down by 2.41% and AXIS Bank down by 2.38%were the major losers on the index.

All Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite declined 31.55 points or 1.38% to 2,246.85, Hang Seng tumbled down 496.83 points or 2.20% to 22,036.28, Jakarta Composite slipped by 4.02 points or 0.08% to 4,815.30, KLSE Composite dropped 6.39 points or 0.39% to 1,621.25, Nikkei 225 crumbled 262.19 points or 2.09% to 12,298.76, Straits Times contracted by 30.70 points or 0.93% to 3,255.12, KOSPI Composite decreased 14.78 points or 0.74% to 1,971.72 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 112.56 points or 1.42% to 7,814.93.