Benchmarks trade near the day’s low

Surrendering all gains, benchmark equity indices are trading near day’s low on account of sustained profit-booking by investors, notwithstanding positive global cues. Sensex slipping below 19400 level, while Nifty, gyrating below its crucial 5900 level was trading with loss of quarter a percent. Broader indices, underperforming frontline equity indices are trading with cut of over 0.25%. On the global front, European shares started on positive note for third consecutive session as UBS AG and BP Plc reported earnings that beat estimates and as speculation mounted that central banks will announce further stimulus. Meanwhile, Asian pacific shares continued to trade mostly in green.

Closer home, gains of FMCG major, Hindustan Unilever, mainly bolstered the sentiment at D-Street, besides, lifting FMCG Pivotal higher. Shares of Hindustan Unilever were in limelight and were trading above their 200 DMA after the parent company Unilever announced open offer at Rs 600 per share to increase stake in the company to 75 per cent. Besides FMCG, Health Care counter too was in green. However, colossal losses at Oil & Gas, Realty and Capital Goods counters mainly reversed the northward journey of the bourses. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 1092:821, while 117 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19383.69, down by 3.81 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 19622.68 and 19353.33. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap and SmallCap index were lower by 0.25% and 0.36% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, FMCG up by 4.49% and Health Care up by 0.48%, while Oil & Gas down by 2.01%, Realty down by 1.59%, Capital Goods up by 1.45%, PSU down by 1.35% and Bankex down by 1.11% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 16.96%, ITC up by 2.00%, Sterlite Industries up by 1.63%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.37% and Jindal Steel up by 1.01%.

On the flip side, ONGC down by 3.48%, Hindalco was down by 2.58%, L&T down by 2.09%,  HDFC down by 1.64% and HDFC Bank down by 1.53% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, to promote the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects in sectors like coal, road and rail, the government has made a strong case for setting up independent regulatory authorities to meet all the challenges that the sectors are facing. While addressing an event, Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram said, 'the regulatory authorities have to be empowered and they have to be given enough authority to be able them to deal with the issues which are arising on the regulatory side.'

By adding further, Mayaram said that there is a need to re-look at the existing regulatory authority and ways to further empower them. The independent regulatory authorities to be able to look at specific sector related problems must be independent of the government and other party, he added.

Regarding the problems being faced by PPP projects, he said that the government cannot bailout projects which fail due to commercial reasons and it can step in if the failures are on account of regulatory hurdles. Therefore, the distinction between the two kinds of failures is necessary.

Further, in order to bring in adequate resources for setting up of a sound and efficient infrastructural base, the government has entered into the 'Public Private Partnership (PPP)' programme. For the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), the government has set the $1-trillion investment target for the infrastructure sector.   The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,890.45, down by 13.65 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 5,962.30 and 5,880.05. There were 14 stocks advancing against 36 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hindustan Unilever up by 17.04%, ITC up by 1.91%, Sun Pharma up by 1.10%, HCL Technologies up by 1.08% and Dr Reddy up by 1.07%.

On the flip side, Reliance Infra down by 3.65%, ONGC down by 3.48%, BPCL down by 3.34%, Hindalco Industries down by 2.68% and JP Associates down by 2.47% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in Green; Hang Seng rose 0.76%, KLSE Composite increased 0.04%, Straits Times surged 0.47%, KOSPI Composite soared 1.20% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.80%. Jakarta Composite declined 0.29% and Nikkei 225 was down by 0.17%. Mainland Chinese markets remained shut for a holiday.

European shares got off to a positive start; with CAC 40 gaining 0.20%, FTSE100 adding 0.38% and DAX rising 0.95%.