Feeble global cues drag benchmarks lower in early deals

Extending their southward journey for fourth straight day, Indian equity indices have made a negative start with frontline gauges tumbling below their crucial 20,000 (Sensex) and 6,050 (Nifty) levels on the back of weak global cues. The US markets suffered a sharp sell-off overnight on worries about Fed tapering its asset purchase program. While, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red at this point of time after Chinese factory activity shrank for the first time in seven months in May as new orders fell, adding to concerns that a recovery in the world’s second-largest economy is sputtering. The flash HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index for May fell to 49.6, slipping under the 50-point level demarcating expansion from contraction for the first since October. The final HSBC PMI stood at 50.4 in April.

Back home, a weakening rupee, which hit over six-month low against the dollar at 55.83, down 37 paise in early trade, also dented the sentiment. However, the losses remain capped as some support came in from Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s statement that people should expect more reforms in the second half of the year. Meanwhile, software remained the lone gainer on the BSE sectoral space, while capital goods, realty and power remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were bleeding badly, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 347 shares on the gaining side against 973 shares on the losing side while 46 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened in 19,971.37; about 90 points lower compared to its previous close of 20,062.24, and has touched a high and a low of 20,027.56 and 19,887.00 respectively. The index is currently trading at 19,930.17, down by 8.22 points or 0.04%. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a weak start with 25.40% stocks advancing against 71.23% decline. The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap down by 1.01% and Small cap indices trading down by 0.94%.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE was, IT up by 0.65% while Capital Goods down by 2.49%, Realty down by 2.29%, Power down by 1.55%, Consumer Durables down by 1.53% and Bankex down by 1.42%, were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 1.33%, TCS up by 0.92%, Sun Pharma up by 0.71%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.70% and ONGC up by 0.58%.

On the flip side, L&T was down by 3.04%, BHEL was down by 3.02%, SBI was down by 2.72%, ICICI Bank was down by 2.49% and  Bharti Airtel was down by 2.36% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the inflation based on consumer price index (CPI) for agricultural labourers (AL) and rural labourers (RL) declined in April as compared to the previous month. The point-to-point rate of inflation based on the CPI-AL and CPI-RL declined to 12.32 per cent and 12.15 per cent in April from 12.64 per cent and 12.62 per cent in March, 2013.  

The index varied from state to state and in case of agricultural labourers, Haryana with 784 points topped the index table whereas Himachal Pradesh with the index level of 557 points stood at the bottom. Further, the index value recorded an increase between 1-13 points in 18 states and a decrease of 2 points each in two states.

Referring to the rural labourers inflation, Haryana state again topped the index table with 779 points, whereas Himachal Pradesh state with the index level of 587 remained at the bottom. Index recorded an increase between 1-12 points in 17 states and a decrease of 2 points each in two states.

Regarding the state wise inflation, Tamil Nadu registered maximum increase of 13 and 12 points respectively in both series owing to the increase in prices of food items including rice, jowar, bajra, fruits and vegetables among others. On the other hand, Meghalaya  and Assam registered decline of 2 points each for CPI-AL and CPI-RL mainly due to decrease in the prices of rice, onion, dry chillies, vegetable, fruits, tobacco leaf and pan leaf.

The CNX Nifty opened at 6,050.40; about 44 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 6,094.50, and has touched a high and a low of 6,081.45 and 6,035.75 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 6,047.55, down by 46.95 points or 0.77%. There were 14 stocks advancing against 35 declines, while one stock remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were HDFC up by 1.13%, UltraTech Cement up by 0.94%, Bajaj-Auto up by 0.88%, HCL Tech up by 0.82% and Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 0.71%.

On the flip side, Ranbaxy down by 6.37%, JP Associate down by 4.56%, BHEL down by 3.24%, L&T down by 2.84% and SBI down by 2.61%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Hang Seng tumbled 381.34 points or 1.64% to 22,879.74, Jakarta Composite dropped 35.91 points or 0.69% to 5,172.09, KLSE Composite dipped 3.02 points or 0.17% to 1,780.86, Nikkei 225 crumbled 382.21 points or 2.45% to 15,245.05, Straits Times contracted 15.07 points or 0.44% to 3,439.30, KOSPI Composite declined 11.58 points or 0.58% to 1,982.25 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 122.06 points or 1.45% to 8,276.78.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was up by 1.52 points or 0.07% to 2,303.92.