Benchmarks recover major portion of losses; negative European opening may weigh

Benchmark equity indices, recovering almost all the losses, are trading flat though with negative bias. Recovery of regional counterparts apparently have aided Indian equity markets in cutting short their losses, besides the broad gains of  Power, Health Care and Realty counters. However, the negative opening of European counterparts may weigh down on the sentiment of benchmark equity indices going further, which as of now is on the verge of breaking out in green. With Sensex trading comfortably above the 19k psychological level, 50 share index, Nifty, too is nearing the crucial 5750 crucial level. Meanwhile, broader indices steadily gaining steam continue to outperform frontline equity indices.

On the global front, European shares made a negative start with investors taking profits on the previous day's gains following a denial of takeover interest in Vodafone.  Speculation over a potential takeover of Vodafone by US partner Verizon had helped to lift British stocks and the European telecom sector on Tuesday. However, overnight Verizon denied reports of a joint takeover with AT&T, although it left to door open to a bid for Vodafone's share in their joint US venture Verizon Wireless.

Closer home, confidence was also restored at D-street by some assuring statement of Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, who said that government will take all the decisive action to push growth to 8 per cent. However, relentless profit-booking in Auto, Technology and Fast Moving Consumer Goods counters, is obstructing the further momentum of bourses. The overall market breadth on BSE continues to remain in the favour of advances which have thumped declines in the ratio of 1565:860, while 116 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19012.02, down by 28.93 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 19035.20 and 18947.37. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The broader indices added some more ground; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were trading up by 0.64% and 1.04% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 2.04%, Health Care up by 0.87%, Realty up by 0.43%, Bankex up by 0.27% and PSU up by 0.20% while, Auto down by 0.89%, Teck down by 0.34%, FMCG down by 0.25%, Oil & Gas down by 0.20% and Consumer Durables down by 0.06% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 4.04%, Sun Pharma up by 2.17%, NTPC up by 1.67%, BHEL and Jindal Steel were up by 1.38%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.15%, Bajaj Auto down by 2.68%, Tata Motors down by 1.87%, Coal India down by 1.36% and  Gail India down by 1.20% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a move to expedite improvement of infrastructure and reduce the time and cost of travel for traffic besides improving employment potential for local labourers,  the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved four road projects worth Rs 4,620 crore in Assam and Madhya Pradesh for the widening of National Highways.

The committee also gave approval for four-laning of the Jabalpur-Bhopal section of NH-12 under Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) -toll mode of delivery worth Rs 2,687 crore. Of the four road projects, three in Assam is for widening of stretches of National Highways 37 under Special Accelerated Road Development Programme in North Eastern Region (SARDP-NE) at a cost of Rs 1,933 crore on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis in BOT (Annuity) mode of delivery.

The projects include widening of Jorhat to Demow section at a cost of Rs 874.69 crore, Numaligarh to Jorhat section at a cost of Rs 584.68 and Demow to Bogibil junction section of NH 37. Further, the project cost in all the three schemes excludes land acquisition and other pre-construction activities.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,741.20, down by 6.90 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 5,744.95 and 5,720.50. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Power up by 4.14%, Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 2.31%, NTPC and BHEL were up by 1.73% and Reliance Infrastructure up by 1.72%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.12%, Bajaj-Auto down by 2.15%, Bank of Baroda down by 2.09%, NMDC down by 1.94% and Tata Motors down by 1.89% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices have recovered some lost ground; Jakarta Composite up by 0.28%, Straits Times up by 0.35%, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.37%, Nikkei 225 was up by 2.99% and Hang Seng was trading flat with positive bias. On the flip side, , Shanghai Composite down by 0.36%, KLSE Composite down by 0.51%, and KOSPI Composite was down by 0.15%. 

European markets got off to a negative start; with CAC 40 trading lower by 0.3%, DAX declining by 0.0.7% and FTSE 100 shedding 0.37%.