Benchmarks relinquish most of their gains; Sensex holds 19300 bastion

Paring most of the gains, benchmark equity indices are now on the verge of slipping into the red terrain tailing listless global cues and prevailing caution ahead of RBI’s monetary policy review on May 3. Although off the day’s low, barometer gauges are managing to hold their fort in green on account of some selective buying in Consumer Durable, Power and Information Technology stocks. Benchmark 30 share index, Sensex has reclaimed its 19300 bastion and is trading with marginal gain of close to one tenth of a percent, Nifty too was trading above 5870 level, which has emerged as its new support level. Broader indices, doing a little better, are up with gains of over 0.25% (Midcap index) and 0.15% (Smallcap index).

On the global front, European shares are trading mixed as Italy's new government prepares to announce its economic plan. Meanwhile, Asian pacific shares too were mixed, while the dollar slipped after US economic growth data came in below forecast owing to deep federal spending cuts.

Closer home, stocks from Metal, Capital Goods and Banking counters are the major pocket of weakness, which are eating into the gains. Meanwhile, select FMCG stocks rose after the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday, 26 April 2013, forecast normal southwest monsoon seasonal rainfall during 2013. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1054:965; while 126 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19302.59, up by 15.87 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 19387.90 and 19284.40. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index were trading up by 0.39% and 0.17% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durables up by 1.49%, Power up by 1.21%, IT up by 1.00%, TECk up by 0.77% and Realty up by 0.51%, while Metal down by 0.78%, Capital Goods down by 0.15% and Bankex down by 0.01%, were the losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 3.51%, Wipro up by 2.21%, Sterlite Industries up by 1.34%, ONGC up by 1.20% and BHEL up by 0.98%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 3.65%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.43%, Coal India down by 1.16%, SBI down by 1.03% and L&T down by 0.86% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the centre, as a relief for the domestic tyre manufacturers who had been urging Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to retain the current import duty structure on natural rubber imports, has refrained from increasing customs duty on natural rubber imports for now. Pressure was also mounted on the Finance Ministry to hike the specific duty component of import duty on natural rubber.

The proposal for natural rubber duty hike was mooted at a time when domestic rubber prices were lower than international by Rs 18-20 a kg. Since the second half of December 2012 and early January this year, the pitch was getting louder for review of import duty on natural rubber. Currently, import duty on natural rubber is pegged at 20 per cent or Rs 20 a kg, whichever is lower.

Also, there are issues of shortfall in domestic availability, imperatives of import for reasons of quality of natural rubber required by the tyre sector and continuing tightness in domestic natural rubber supplies due to lean season.The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,874.80, up by 3.35 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 5,899.15 and 5,871.15. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 3.51%, Reliance Infra up by 3.08%, IndusInd bank up by 2.64%, HCL Tech up by 2.27% and Cairn India up by 2.08%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel & Power down by 3.56%, ACC down by 1.57%, Axis Bank down by 1.56%, Ambuja Cements down by 1.55% and NMDC down by 1.50% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Jakarta Composite added 0.26%, Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.10% and Straight Times was up by 0.05%

On the flip side, Hang Seng dropped 0.07%, KLSE Composite slipped 0.15%, KOSPI Composite was down by 0.20% and. Markets in mainland China and Japan were closed for holidays.

European markets got off to a mostly negative start; with FTSE100 trading lower by 0.25%, DAX slipping by 0.23% and CAC 40 adding 0.98%.