Feeble global cues drag benchmarks lower in morning deals

Pressurized by feeble global cues, Indian equity benchmarks have made a negative start with Sensex tumbling below its crucial 18,200 level. Investors remained on the sidelines ahead of wholesale price inflation data for March, India’s key inflation measure, which will set the tone for the markets today. The wholesale price index is expected to ease a tad to 6.40 percent in March, lower than 6.84 percent registered in February. RBI governor Duvvuri Subbarao has said that further rate cuts will depend on inflation easing further. Selling in Software and technology counters too dampened the sentiments. Stocks like, Infosys, TCS, Tech Mahindra, Satyam Computers and Financial Technologies remained under pressure with new immigration rule being pushed by senators in the US.

Global cues too remained feeble as the US markets ended flat with a negative bias on Friday on getting a slew of disappointing economic reports, though some positive earnings announcements held the markets from slipping further. Asian markets too were trading mostly in the red at this point of time as weaker-than-expected US and Chinese data raised concerns about the global economic outlook. Chinese economic recovery unexpectedly staggered in Q4 FY13 as the annual rate of growth eased back to 7.7 percent from the 7.9 percent pace set in the fourth quarter of previous year.

Back home, on the sectoral front, oil and gas witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by public sector undertaking and healthcare while, consumer durables, software and technology remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks while, the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 628 shares on the gaining side against 591 shares on the losing side while 67 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 18,196.09; about 46 points lower compared to its previous closing of 18,242.56, and has touched a high and a low of 18,215.91 and 18,144.22 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 18,187.33, down by 55.23 points or 0.30%. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 48.83% stocks advancing against 45.96% declines. The broader indices were outperforming benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices up by 0.08% and 0.20% respectively. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 1.12%, PSU up by 0.57%, Health Care up by 0.32%, Realty up by 0.31% and Bankex up by 0.10% while, Consumer Durables down by 2.25%, IT down by 1.73%, Teck down by 1.31%, Auto down by 1.25% and Metal down by 0.82% were the only losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.61%, SBI up by 1.34%, HDFC up by 1.14%, Jindal Steel up by 1.08% and Gail India up by 1.00%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors was down by 3.34%, Infosys was down by 2.55%, Coal India was down by 1.85%, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 1.62% and TCS was down by 1.55% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a big relief to policy-makers, annual rate of inflation, based on the consumer prices index (CPI), after rising for fifth consecutive month, declined to 10.39% in March as against 10.91% seen in the previous month. However, inflation continued to remain in double digit terrain for the fourth consecutive month in March. The decline was mainly seen in prices of vegetables and protein based items.

As per the data, provisional annual inflation rate based on all India general CPI (Combined) for March 2013 on point to point basis stood at 10.39% as compared to 10.91% final inflation number for February 2013. Further, CPI numbers for rural, urban and combined were at 128.2, 126.5 and 127.5 respectively. The corresponding inflation rates for rural and urban areas for March came in at 10.33% and 10.38% respectively.  While final inflation rates for rural and urban for the month of February were revised at 11.01% and 10.84% respectively.

Among all the constituents that make the CPI, cereals recorded the highest inflation of 17.55% in March. However, the prices in the vegetables basket eased to 12.16% in March from the 21.29% in February. While, inflation in pulses stood at 11.38% and in sugar at 11.65% on an annual basis. Further, price rise in the clothing and footwear segment stood at 10.64% for the reporting month.

India has the highest retail inflation among the BRICS group of emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, China, and South Africa -- and is way above the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s comfort level. The central bank will take into account the double digit retail inflation and slowdown in factory output while formulating its annual monetary policy, which is scheduled on May 3.   

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,508.50; about 20 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 5,528.55, and has touched a high and a low of 5,521.65 and 5,500.30 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,516.35, down by 12.20 points or 0.20%. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BPCL up by 4.35%, ONGC up by 2.28%, HDFC up by 1.48%, Bank of Baroda up by 1.48% and SBI up by 1.38%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 3.34%, Infosys down by 2.78%, Cairn down by 1.99%, Coal India down by 1.85% and Sesa Goa down by 1.66%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined by 20.32 points or 0.92% to 2,186.46, Hang Seng tumbled by 336.00 points or 1.52% to 21,753.05, Jakarta Composite dropped 32.73 points or 0.66% to 4,904.48, Nikkei 225 slumped by 202.66 points or 1.50% to 13,282.48, Straits Times slipped 10.03 by points or 0.30% to 3,284.16, KOSPI Composite dipped 11.66 points or 0.61% to 1,912.57 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 61.07 points or 0.78% to 7,760.56.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite was up by 1.34 points or 0.08% to 1,699.87.