Indian equities pare gains; Nifty slips below 5,700 mark

Indian equity markets pared gains but continued firm trade in green in the late afternoon session due to profit booking in frontline counters and taking cues from European counterparts. Traders were seen adding some Consumer Durables, TECK and Bankex sector stocks, while selling was witnessed in Auto, Power and Realty sector. In scrip specific development, Tata Motors was trading in red on reports that new fuel efficiency guidelines issued in China will hurt sales of Jaguar Land Rover units. Titan Industries was trading in green after Morgan Stanley upgraded the company to equal-weight from underweight. Balmer Lawrie & Company was trading firm on buzz of bonus issue. A meeting of the board of directors of the company will be held on March 26 to consider declaration of bonus shares. On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in green while the European markets were trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 5,700 and 19,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1041:1639 while 119 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,905.49, up by 21.30 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 19,082.29 and 18,798.98. There were 11 stocks advancing against 18 declines while 1 stock remains unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading lower by 0.22% and 0.21% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 2.19%, TECk up by 0.93%, Bankex up by 0.61%, IT up by 0.40%, and Metal up by 0.36%, while Auto down by 1.57%, Power down by 1.56%, Realty down by 1.34%, PSU down 0.88% and Capital Goods down by 0.83% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 6.92%, ICICI Bank up by 4.25%, HDFC up by 3.13%, Jindal Steel up by 2.04% and Sterlite Industries up by 0.93%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 3.50%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.98%, Bajaj Auto down by 2.85%, Tata Power down by 2.84% and ONGC down by 2.19% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) has initiated steps for speedy approval to infrastructure projects including coal and highways, which are blocked for want of green nod.  Around 20 major highways projects entailing investment of Rs 27,000 crore have been blocked for long due to various reasons including delays in environment clearances and financial challenges. The government has set the ambitious 8800 km road project target for this financial year, while, the National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) has achieved only one-tenth of it.

On the other hand, 8 coal projects entailing investment of about Rs 1,000 crore are awaiting green clearances and the coal ministry had been pitching for their early approval. Coal India (CIL), which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal output, missed its production target last fiscal and produced only 435.84 million tonne (MT) against the revised target of 447 MT for various reasons, including delays in obtaining environment and forestry approvals for new mines.

The government has identified the development of infrastructure as a most critical prerequisite to boost the economy’s growth. The pace of development in the infrastructure sector lingers to a great extent on the investments made and timely execution of the projects. For the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), the government has set the $1-trillion investment target for the infrastructure sector. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,696.30, up by 1.90 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 5,757.75 and 5,670.50. There were 19 stocks advancing against 31 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 7.34%, ICICI Bank up by 4.29%, HDFC up by 3.25%, Jindal Steel up by 2.32% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.54%.

On the flip side, Reliance Infrastructure down by 3.63%, Tata Motors down by 3.41%, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.20%, Bank of Baroda down by 3.11% and PNB down by 3.09% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite gained 0.30%, KLSE Composite was trading up 0.12%, Nikkei 225 surged 1.34%, Straits Times jumped 0.59% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.18%.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite declined 0.74%, Hang Seng down by 0.14% and KOSPI Composite was down by 0.44%.   

The European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC 40 lost 1.02%, Germany’s DAX descended 0.50% and United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.44%.