Domestic benchmarks trade lower in early deals; CPI inflation data eyed

Key domestic benchmarks made a negative start as funds and retail investors opted to book their profits amid choppy trade in other Asian markets. Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red at this point of time with sentiment hit by selling in commodities triggered by a strong dollar, which rose to a fresh four-and-a-half-year peak against the yen on the back of growing confidence in the US economy. Though, the US markets closed higher on Friday supported by some good earnings, the trade remained quiet and there was some cautiousness after the Fed chief’s statement about the shadow banking system.

Back home, investors remained on sidelines ahead of the consumer price index (CPI) inflation data to be released later in the day. Sentiments also remain dampened after an ASSOCHAM survey stated that owing to demand slowdown, the contribution of the manufacturing sector in the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) may fall below 15 percent in 2013-14. Meanwhile, healthcare and consumer durables remained the only gainers on the BSE sectoral space while, fast moving consumer goods, technology and capital goods remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were struggling to get some traction while, the market breadth on the BSE was evenly divided; there were 709 shares on the gaining side against 708 shares on the losing side while 62 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 20,073.41; about 48 points lower compared to its previous closing of 20,122.32, and has touched a high and a low of 20,109.08 and 19,967.12 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 19,987.97, down by 134.35 points or 0.67%. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 49.37% stocks advancing against 46.34% declines. The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap down by 0.21% and Small cap indices trading flat.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Health Care up by 0.58% and Consumer Durables up by 0.54% while, FMCG down by 1.34%, IT down by 0.94%, Capital Goods down by 0.88%, Teck down by 0.88% and Realty down by 0.64% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr Reddys Lab up by 2.50%, Sun Pharma up by 0.54%, NTPC up by 0.49%, Cipla up by 0.44% and ONGC up by 0.20%.

On the flip side, ITC was down by 2.37%, TCS was down by 1.37%, BHEL was down by 1.23%, Gail India  was down by 1.13% and  HDFC was down by 1.08% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the proposed Mines Act 1952 (amendments) has been referred to the Group of Ministers (GoM) for consideration following members of the Cabinet expressed different views on making the Chief Executive or the Chairman responsible for mishaps as proposed in the Labour Ministry's bill.

As per the Mining Act 1952, in case of an accident, a clause in the Mining Act provides for heavy fines and long term imprisonment of managers of the mines for violation of safety norms. Therefore, the members are of the view that the issue should be left to the board to decide on whom to nominate for liability in case of an accident.  

The Bill also proposes to amend and consolidate the law relating to regulation of condition of work and welfare of persons employed in mines and for the matter connected therewith. The Act was last amended in 1983 and subsequent to the amendments, several developments in the area of technology, scale of operations, working environment and work practices in coal, non-coal and oil sector have taken place and thus forced the government to further amend it.

The CNX Nifty opened at 6,098.20; about 8 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 6,107.25, and has touched a high and a low of 6,104.95 and 6,065.00 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 6,069.10, down by 38.15 points or 0.62%. There were 11 stocks advancing against 39 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Dr. Reddy's Laboratories up by 2.30%, Asian Paints up by 1.19%, Axis Bank up by 0.90%, Cipla up by 0.55% and NTPC up by 0.52%.

On the flip side, ITC down by 2.48%, BHEL down by 1.45%, DLF down by 1.43%, TCS down by 1.41% and PNB down by 1.21%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined 4.76 points or 0.21% to 2,242.07, Hang Seng tumbled 240.83 points or 1.03% to 23,080.39, Jakarta Composite dropped 39.81 points or 0.78% to 5,066.13, Straits Times slipped 5.68 points or 0.16% to 3,438.09, KOSPI Composite dipped 0.43 points or 0.02% to 1,944.32 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 38.68 points or 0.47% to 8,241.58.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite rose 14.40 points or 0.81% to 1,786.78 and Nikkei 225 was up by 182.25 points or 1.25% to 14,789.79.