Markets continue flat trade in negative territory

Indian equity markets continued trading flat in negative territory on Wednesday amid alternate bouts of buying and selling. Markets have gone flat with Sensex dipping below the 20,000-mark, while Nifty declining by 12.30 points. Investors were trading cautiously ahead of consumer price index and industrial production data on May 10, which will be followed by wholesale inflation data on May 13. In currency market, rupee depreciated against greenback on Wednesday on the back of fag-end demand for the US currency on reports of defence-related payments. On the sectoral front, except technology stocks, most of the indices were trading down.

On the global front, Australian jobs data and a surprise interest rate cut by South Korea underpinned Asian shares on Thursday after Wall Street's extended record run, but prices were capped by concerns that a pick-up in inflation in China will limit its policy options. Back home, the market breadth was favoring negative trend; there were 1,027 shares on the losing side against 935 shares on the gaining side, while 125 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,990.18, down by 37.17 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 20,058.48 and 19,941.35. There were 12 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index and one remains unchanged.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.07% and Small cap index was up by 0.11%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 0.99%, Teck up by 0.82% and Auto up by 0.10%, while Health Care down by 1.02%, Realty down by 0.58%, Capital Goods down by 0.57%, Bankex down by 0.55% and Metal down by 0.54% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 1.58%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.22%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.18%, ONGC up by 0.72% and Infosys up by 0.36%.

On the flip side, Sun Pharma was down by 2.87%, Sterlite Industries was down by 1.57%, Reliance was down by 1.34%, Jindal Steel was down by 1.25% and  BHEL was down by 1.02% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the government has set the exports target to $325 billion for the FY14 which is less than the previous fiscal's exports target of $360 billion in wake of the prevailing global economic slowdown which has impacted trades all over the world with India being no exception. The exports declined by 1.76% to $300.6 billion during 2012-13 which were the first ever decline since 2009-10 and pushed up the trade deficit during the fiscal to $190.91 billion from $183.4 billion in the previous financial year.

However, concerned over the declining India’s export, the Government announced a slew of measures in the annual Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) including sops for Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and extension of the popular EPCG scheme to all sectors to boost shipments. The Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme, which allows exporters to import capital goods at zero duty, would be extended beyond March 2013 and would be applicable to all sectors.

Further, the scheme would also merge with 3 per cent EPCG scheme. Regarding the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Scheme, the government has stated that the minimum land area requirement for setting up such zones has been reduced to half and there would be no ceiling for IT and ITeS SEZs.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,057.00 down by 12.30 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 6,084.70 and 6,053.95. There were 18 stocks advancing against 30 declines while 2 stocks remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were HCL Tech up by 3.77%, Ambuja Cement up by 1.60%, TCS up by 1.34%, Asian Paints up by 1.14% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.11%.

On the flip side, Sun Pharmaceuticals down by 2.72%, Axis Bank down by 2.06%, Ranbaxy down by 1.88%, Reliance Infra down by 1.55% and Reliance down by 1.40%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Straits Times surged 0.50%, KOSPI Composite soared 1.17% and Taiwan Weighted was up 0.23%.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 down by 0.57%, Shanghai Composite declined 0.96%, Hang Seng contracted 0.39% and KLSE Composite was down by 0.36%.

Indonesian market remained shut for the trade today.