Benchmarks drift southward on Thursday’s morning deals

Key domestic benchmarks, after a day of breather, have resumed their southward journey pressurized by feeble global cues with Sensex declining below its crucial 18,600 mark. Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red at this point of time as weak euro zone data, a sluggish debt auction in Italy and fears of a potential run on Cyprus banks stoked investors' concerns about instability in Europe. Though, the US markets made a mixed closing on Wednesday despite making late recovery.

Back home, sentiments also remained lackluster as investors roll-over their derivative contracts to next month on the last day of Futures & Options expiry of March month. Traders also remained sideways ahead of the Current Account Deficit (CAD) numbers, slated to be announced later in the day by the central bank for the three months ended December 31. Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) Chairman C Rangarajan had said that third quarter CAD will be higher but it could come down in the fourth quarter.

On the sectoral front, software witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by healthcare and public sector undertaking while, realty, auto and oil and gas remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were struggling to get some traction while, the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 720 shares on the gaining side against 1,011 shares on the losing side while 100 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 18,702.46; about 2 points lower compared to its previous closing of 18,704.53, and has touched a high and a low of 18,708.22 and 18,581.78 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 18,594.41, down by 110.12 points or 0.59%. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a weak start with 38.67% stocks advancing against 56.20% declines. The broader indices were trading in-line with benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices declined by 0.30% and 0.29% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 0.53%, Health Care up by 0.50%, PSU up by 0.14%, Teck up by 0.14% and Capital Goods up by 0.12% while, Realty down by 1.56%, Auto down by 1.54%, Oil & Gas down by 1.23%, Consumer Durables down by 1.12% and Bankex down by 0.44% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Gail India up by 1.83%, Coal India up by 1.24%, Infosys up by 0.94%, Hindalco Industries up by 0.80% and L&T up by 0.31%.

On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp was down by 2.83%, Tata Motors was down by 2.45%, Bharti Airtel was down by 2.37%, RIL was down by 2.18% and HDFC was down by 1.96% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, expressing hope that the ways to revive global growth and faster movement on reform of institutions of global, political and economic governance will be discussed during the BRICS Durban Summit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left for 4-day visit to Durban on March 25. 

Accompanied by a high-power delegation including Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, steps to ensure global macroeconomic stability as well as mechanisms and measures to promote investment in infrastructure and sustainable development are expected to be discussed.

As per Singh, at the time when the world is facing multiple challenges, the Durban Summit will provide a useful and timely opportunity to consult and coordinate on a broad range of issues with BRICS partners. By adding further, Singh said over the last few years, BRICS has emerged as a consequential voice in the international arena. Close coordination between its members through the means of an annual summit and several area-specific meetings as necessary has strengthened cooperation and has improved the effectiveness of the forum.

BRICS Summit is the annual summit of the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. During the visit, the Prime Minister will also hold substantive bilateral meetings with other BRICS leaders, including the newly appointed Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,647.75; about 6 points higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,641.60, and has touched a high and a low of 5,647.80 and 5,606.85 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,611.75, down by 29.85 points or 0.53%. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were HCL Tech up by 1.65%, Lupin up by 1.97%, GAIL up by 1.93%, IDFC up by 1.64% and BPCL up by 1.31%.

On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.86%, Tata Motors down by 2.76%, Cairn down by 2.74%, DLF down by 2.73% and Bharti Airtel down by 2.34%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite tumbled 60.66 points or 2.64% to 2,240.60, Hang Seng declined 250.21 points or 1.11% to 22,214.61, Jakarta Composite dipped 22.25 points or 0.45% to 4,905.85, Nikkei 225 dropped 179.61 points or 1.44% to 12,314.18, Straits Times decreased 5.08 points or 0.15% to 3,307.95, KOSPI Composite slipped 3.27 points or 0.16% to 1,990.17 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 33.72 points or 0.43% to 7,860.40.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite was up by 2.41 points or 0.14% to 1,669.98.