Benchmarks recover some ground; broader indices gain traction

Benchmarks have recuperated some lost ground, on account of some bargain buying after dipping to their November 2012 lows. Negative sentiment at D-street is being witnessed ahead of derivatives contracts expire and release of nation’s current-account balance for the three months ended December 31, which is widely expected to come at an all time high of 6.4% against 5.4% in the July-September period. Further, gloomy global set-up is also perturbing markets on the last trading of the Financial Year 2012-13. Asian shares continue to remain under pressure on Thursday as investors were fretting over the euro-zone after a weak debt auction in Italy and the potential for a run on Cyprus’s banks when they reopen later in the day.

Closer home, rate sensitive, Auto, Realty and Banking counters have mainly emerged as the pockets of weakness, while Metal, Consumer Durables and Health Care counters, are aiding the benchmarks in cutting their losses. Auto stocks are trading weak ahead of monthly sales volume data which these companies will start unveiling from Monday, 1 April 2013. While, banking shares continue to remain under pressure ever following allegations of money laundering by branch level employees of private sector banks. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of declines which have thumped advances in the ratio of 1205:1136, while 131 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18653.14, down by 51.39 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 18708.22 and 18568.43. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The broader indices enticed additional traction; the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap indices were trading higher by 0.30% and 0.28% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.33%, Consumer Durable up by 1.27%, Health Care up by 0.92%, PSU up 0.86% and Capital Goods up by 0.62%, while Auto down by 1.42%, Realty down by 0.84%, Bankex down by 0.29% and Power down by 0.12% were the losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sterlite Industries up by 3.40%, Hindalco Industries up by 3.13%, Gail India up by 2.53%, ONGC up by 2.51% and Coal India up by 1.76%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.58%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.54%, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 2.02% Bharti Airtel was down by 2.00% and HDFC was down by 1.64% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, while addressing the fifth BRICS Summit, has admitted that India unfortunately has not performed to expectations in the fields of trade and other commercial ties with member nations of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Out of the proposed $500 billion trade expected between the BRICS nations by 2015, the countries had crossed the $319 billion mark.

The Indian Commerce Minister said that he was not fully satisfied with India’s trade of $ 100 billion with the other BRICS nations and considered it to be an underperformance, saying that it is much below the country’s potential. Though, Sharma added that there are unexploited opportunities, and we are beckoning our business leaders and our institution builders to grab these and enhance the export.

Presently, the government is focusing to enhance the export as the waning export is hurting the country’s trade balance and the current account deficit, putting pressure on the currency. Government is looking at ways to increase exports through the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP). The annual FTP is expected to come in the first week of April.

To increase the country’s export, the commerce ministry is examining a number of proposals from the industry that include extending direct cash incentives to exporters of a larger number of products to targeted markets. The government is also considering an export development fund with a likely corpus of about Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 10,000 to help the exporters in their marketing initiatives and interest subsidy scheme to more export sectors in the upcoming foreign trade policy (FTP).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,627.05, down by 14.55 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 5,647.80 and 5,604.85. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sesa Goa up by 3.07%, Hindalco up by 2.83%, GAIL up by 2.50%, ONGC up by 2.27% and Bank of Baroda up by 1.94%.

On the flip side, Cairn down by 3.03%, Tata Motors down by 2.81%, DLF down by 2.66%, M&M down by 2.14% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.99% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite tumbled 2.82%, Hang Seng declined 0.74%, Jakarta Composite dipped 0.32%, Nikkei 225 dropped 1.26%, Straits Times decreased 0.06% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.35%.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite was up by 0.44%, while KOSPI Composite was trading flat with positive bias.