Weak trade prevails; Nifty below 5,900 mark

Indian equity markets continued its weak trade in the late afternoon session on account of selling in front line blue chip counters. The mood on the street were on cautious note after World Bank scaled down India’s growth forecast to 6.1% for the current fiscal from 7% projected six months ago. The decline in growth forecast is largely due to the decline in agriculture sector which is expected to grow at 2% during 2013-14 against the previous estimate of 2.7% despite normal monsoon projection. Traders were seen piling position in FMCG, Health Care and IT stocks, while selling was witnessed in Realty, Capital Goods and Oil & Gas sector stock. In scrip specific development, Hindustan Unilever rallied after Unilever PLC made voluntary open offer to acquire 48.70 crore shares of the company. Balaji Telefilms was trading in red on reports that the Income Tax (IT) department conducted raids on company’s offices located in Mumbai. The stock market will remain close tomorrow on Wednesday i.e. May 01, 2013, on account of Maharashtra Day.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in green, while the European markets were trading on mixed note.  Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 5,900 and 19,400 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 871:1282, while 125 scrips remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,382.78, down by 4.72 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 19,622.68 and 19,317.38. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were lower by 0.21% and 0.61% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, FMCG up by 5.14%, Health Care up by 0.52% and IT up 0.13% while Realty down by 2.00%, Capital Goods down by 1.86%, Oil & Gas down by 1.49%, Auto down by 1.25% and Bankex down by 1.25% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 17.56%, ITC up by 2.42%, Coal India up by 1.53%, Sterlite Industries up by 1.47% and Wipro up by 0.82%.

On the flip side, Hindalco Industries was down by 3.24%, L&T down by 2.69%, ONGC down by 2.39%, HDFC Bank down by 2.15% and HDFC down by 1.88% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, with an aim to speed up the statutory clearances to the infrastructure projects, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has suggested to introduce some form of penalty to the government for delays in statutory clearances to infrastructure projects being executed in the public-private partnership mode.

As per Ahluwalia, ‘most of the infrastructure projects are delayed because statutory clearances are not delivered on time and one way to handle this is to introduce penalties on behalf of the government.’ By adding further, he said that speedy clearances at the government's end is essential to attract at least 50% of the estimated $1 trillion needed to be pumped into the country's infrastructure sector in the 12th five-year plan.

Referring to the private sector participation in infrastructure PPP projects, he said that the tardy pace of clearances in India is often blamed for the low level of private sector participation in key areas, especially infrastructure, which in turn inhibits growth. In the 12th Plan period, around 50% of the estimated investment would have to come from the private sector, he added. 

The government has identified the development of infrastructure as a most critical requirement to boost the economy’s growth and has entered into the 'Public Private Partnership (PPP)' programme in order to bring in adequate resources for setting up of an efficient infrastructural base.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,886.40, down by 17.70 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 5,962.30 and 5,867.80. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hindustan Unilever up by 17.52%, ITC up by 2.39%, HCL Technologies up by 2.05%, Coal India up 1.74% and Lupin up by 1.66%.

On the flip side, JP Associates down by 4.54%, Reliance Infrastructure down by 3.87%, PNB down by 3.78%, IDFC down by 3.41% and Hindalco Industries down by 3.39% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng rose 0.69%, KLSE Composite increased 0.43%, Straits Times surged 0.22%, KOSPI Composite soared 1.20% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.80%.

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite declined 0.01% and Nikkei 225 was down by 0.17%. Mainland Chinese markets remained shut for a holiday.

The European markets were trading on a mixed note; France’s CAC 40 lost 0.20%, Germany’s DAX gain 0.65% and United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 edged higher by 0.04%.