Sensex, Nifty trade marginally in red

Indian equities are trading marginally in the red in the late morning session in absence of supportive cues from global peers and lack of buying after the recent run-up. There are no big movements in the indices as investors and traders have held on to their positions on hopes that the next run in the equities would just be around the corner. On the global front, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red at this point of time with Japanese market trading lower despite the yen dropping against other major currencies ahead of the Bank of Japan’s two days policy meeting, which will conclude on May 22, 2013.

Back home, the traders were seen piling up positions in IT, Oil & Gas and Teck while selling was seen in Auto, Realty and Capital Goods sector. In scrip specific actions, Srei Infrastructure Finance Zoomed after the company's consolidated profit before tax was up by 53% at Rs 362.78 crore in the year under review from Rs 236.77 crore in the previous year. City Union Bank soared after the private sector bank reported a 14.58 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 82.48 crore for the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2013, from the year-ago period. Coal India (CIL) surged after the company reported a nearly 90-percent jump in standalone net profit at Rs 2,320.61 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31.Prestige Estate, Tech Mahindra rose ahead of its quarterly results. Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (TTML) dropped after the company said its promoter Tata Sons will sell 1% stake, comprising 1.89 crore shares, in the company by June 4. Voltas tanked after the Tata group firm reported a whopping decline of 91 per cent in consolidated net profit at Rs 9 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2013. Divi's Laboratories slumped after the company posted 16.75 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 180.57 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2013, due to foreign exchange loss during the period. Dhanuka Agritech slipped after the agro-chemicals manufacturer reported a marginal fall of 2 per cent in standalone net profit at Rs 17.86 crore for its fourth quarter ended March 31 on account of higher tax expenses. Hotel Leela Venture dipped after the company reported a net loss of Rs 142.17 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2013 mainly on account of finance costs. Reliance Infrastructure declined as the company is in the process of pulling out of mega projects worth 20,000 crore due to inordinate delays by government agencies in fulfilling commitments relating to these projects.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading just above their psychological 6,100 and 20,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was showing negative trend with advances to declines in ratio of 707: 917.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20205.63, down by 18.35 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 20288.76 and 20191.10. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.05% and Small cap index was down by 0.13%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 0.52%, Oil & Gas up by 0.42%, Teck up by 0.41% and PSU up by 0.02% while, Auto down by 1.12%, Realty down by 1.11%, Capital Goods down by 0.72%, Power down by 0.68%, Bankex down by 0.40% were the  losers on the on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 2.23%, BHEL up by 1.66%, HDFC up by 0.95%, Sun Pharma up by 0.93% and Gail India up by 0.89%. On the flip side, Tata Motors was down by 2.23%, NTPC was down by 1.70%, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 1.44% , L&T was down by 1.16% and Dr Reddys Lab was down by 0.97% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, While addressing a Competition Commission of India (CCI) event, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that, considering the improvement in the macro-economic situation, India deserved an upgrade in credit ratings and sovereign outlook and that there is nothing to worry about the economy as the Government’s fiscal policies are going in the right direction. 

Last week, global credit rating agency S&P had stated that it may downgrade India's sovereign rating to junk grade if the Government fails to pursue reforms and check deterioration in fiscal and current account deficits. While retaining India's sovereign rating at 'BBB-' with a negative outlook citing high current account deficit (CAD) and fiscal deficit, S&P said that Asia's third-largest economy has a one-in-three chance of its rating being downgraded to junk. Referring to the widening CAD due to high gold import, Chidambaram said that policymakers will strive hard to bring down gold imports. Further, the central bank RBI, instructed banks to not to import gold except for jewellers for export and more steps will be taken to curb gold imports if needed.

The current account deficit (CAD) reached an all-time high of 6.7 percent of GDP in the third quarter of FY13. However, the Government has expressed optimism that CAD will be below 5 percent in 2012-13 and the fiscal deficit for FY13 will be around 5 percent of GDP.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,140.10 down by 16.80 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 6,173.10 and 6,138.65. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Coal India up by 2.02%, Lupin up by 1.20%, TCS up by 1.10%, HCL Tech up by 1.06% and BHEL up by 0.96%. On the flip side, UltraTech Cement down by 2.73%, Tata Motors down by 2.43%, JP Associate down by 2.25%, NTPC down by 2.23% and Reliance Infrastructure down by 2.14% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite slipped 3.38 points or 0.15% to 2,296.60, Hang Seng declined 146.00 points or 0.62% to 23,347.03, Jakarta Composite dropped 29.15 points or 0.56% to 5,185.83, Nikkei 225 dipped 7.52 points or 0.05% to 15,355.37, Straits Times contracted 18.75 points or 0.54% to 3,435.31, KOSPI Composite decreased 2.31 points or 0.12% to 1,980.12. and Taiwan Weighted was down by 2.11 points or 0.03% to 8,368.37.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite was up by 6.99 points or 0.39% to 1,784.14.