Benchmarks pare gains; trade continues in red

Indian equities trimmed gains to trade in red in the late morning session due to sustained selling by funds and retail investors. Sentiments got dampened on weak trend in the Asian region in line with overnight losses on the US markets and worries over the country’s political stability. On the global front, most of the Asian counters were trading muted at this point of time on fears that Cyprus may default on its debt, while deteriorating euro zone economic activity further underscored the troubles ailing the region.

Back home, the traders were seen piling up positions in Capital Goods, Power and Bankex while selling was seen in, Consumer Durables, Realty and Teck sector. In scrip specific development, National Fertilizers, Nagarjuna Fertilizers, Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers, Chambal Fertilisers, Gujarat State Fertilisers and Coromandel International edged lower on report that the fertilizer subsidy payment is likely to remain outstanding this fiscal year.

In scrip specific actions, M&M surged on speculation that higher excise duty on Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) imposed in the Budget, may be reversed. MMTC slumped on concerns of the offer-for-sale price being at a steep discount to the market price. Shares of steel major SAIL dropped as government's 5.82 per cent stake sale of the firm commenced on the bourses.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading just above their psychological 5650 and 18,700 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was showing negative trend with advances to declines in ratio of 625: 1407.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18758.26, down by 34.61 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 18838.94 and 18757.66. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.65% and Small cap index was down by 0.99%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 0.38%, Power up by 0.29%, Bankex up by 0.16%, Metal up by 0.15% and Auto up by 0.15% while, Consumer Durables down by 1.70%, Realty down by 1.13%, Teck down by 0.84%, IT down by 0.79% and PSU down by 0.36% were the losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto up by 2.26%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.02%, NTPC up by 1.48%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.32% and Coal India up by 1.12%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel was down by 2.72%, SBI was down by 0.95%, Infosys was down by 0.95%, ONGC was down by 0.77%, TCS was down by 0.76% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in yet another step towards liberalizing the civil aviation sector, after allowing 49% FDI in airlines the Civil Aviation Ministry has abolished the Aircraft Acquisition Committee (AAC), which used to allow import of planes by airlines and other operators. Pursuant to which, aviation regulator DGCA would now carry out the necessary formalities for airlines, private parties and flight training schools to get their fleet of planes or helicopters. Further, the permission for actual induction of aircraft will no longer be required from Ministry of Civil Aviation. Matters relating to initial no-objection certificate (NOC) and in-principle approval for acquisition of aircraft by scheduled operators would now be processed by DGCA. Moreover, as part of the requirements under the Aircraft Rules and RBI guidelines, from now onwards, only the initial NOC to launch scheduled or non-scheduled air transport services and in-principle approval for acquisition of aircraft would be required from the Ministry. With the abolition of AAC, it will remove duplication and also reduce delays in seeking approval and also do away with the cumbersome procedure, which airlines had to follow before acquisition of aircraft. The decision will also help airlines to plan better for future induction of aircraft and also maintain timeliness of acquisition. So far, ACC had approved acquisition of a total of 146 planes, including 35 each for IndiGo and Jet Airways-JetLite combine. Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh had constituted the new AAC under the Ministry in October last year to consider, examine and make recommendations on all proposals for permitting import or acquisition of aircraft for various purposes

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,658.50 down by 0.25 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 5,676.80 and 5,652.85. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were IDFC up by 2.42%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.32%, Hero Moto Co up by 2.13%, Bank of Baroda up by 2.08% and Ambuja Cement up by 2.01%.

On the flip side, Ranbaxy down by 2.67%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.64%, DLF down by 1.90%, JP Associate down by 1.72%, and SBI down by 0.95% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Straits Times rose 2.16 points or 0.05% to 3,268.33, Shanghai Composite jumped 3.08 points or 0.13% to 2,327.32, KLSE Composite increased 1.61 points or 0.10% to 1,632.36, KOSPI Composite added 3.15 points or 0.16% to 1,953.90 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 3.28 points or 0.04% to 7,815.36.

On the flip side, Hang Seng declined by 86.00 points or 0.39% to 22,139.88, Jakarta Composite decreased 6.10 points or 0.13% to 4,796.56 and Nikkei 225 was down by 206.56 points or 1.63 to 12,430.13.