Benchmarks trade marginally in the red

The Indian benchmarks were trading marginally in the red in the late morning session. The Indices seemed to consolidate after the previous session's sell off as traders and investors picked up good bargains in the markets, reciprocating their Asian counterparts. On the global front, most of the Asian equity indices made some pull back in early trade with Japanese stocks climbing over a per cent, after suffering an eye-watering 7.3 per cent drop in a vicious turnaround from a 5-1/2 year peak, as financials and real estate shares regained ground.

Back home, the traders were seen piling up positions in Oil & Gas, Capital Goods and Metal while selling was seen in Health Care, Auto and IT sector. In scrip specific actions, McNally Bharat soared on receiving an order for construction of a portion of 4 laning of National Highway at a value of Rs. 277 crores. The contractual completion period is within22 months. SpiceJet surged ahead of its results. Hindustan Copper rose after net profit rose 36.86% to Rs 188.09 crore on 11.62% decline in total income to Rs 550.45 crore in Q4 March 2013 over Q4 March 2012.Wockhardt extended Thursday’s 20% slump triggered by US drug regulator imposing an import alert on a plant operated by the company. Tata Steel jumped despite on reporting a consolidated net loss of Rs 6528.51 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2013 hit by weak demand and depressed steel prices in Europe, against net profit of Rs 433.46 crore in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading just above their psychological 5,950 and 19,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was showing negative trend with advances to declines in ratio of 667: 923.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19613.85, down by 60.48 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 19833.14 and 19568.49. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.31% and Small cap index was down by 0.29%. The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 0.23%, Capital Goods up by 0.23%, Metal up by 0.22%, Power up by 0.10% and PSU up by 0.25% while, Health Care down by 1.22%, Auto down by 0.84%, IT down by 0.38%, Consumer Durables down by 0.30% and Teck down by 0.29% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.24%, NTPC up by 1.24%, ICICI Bank up by 0.95%, L&T up by 0.87% and Dr Reddys Lab up by 0.75%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma was down by 2.49%, Hindalco Inds was down by 2.11%, BHEL was down by 1.97%, Tata Motors was down by 1.79%  and Cipla was down by 1.75% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Concerned over the record falling of rupee below the 56-level against dollar, Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan said, the exchange rate of the local currency will be determined by the capital flows. While addressing an event, Rangarajan said ‘the value of rupee depends on the current account deficit (CAD) and the capital flows, but my view is that the capital flows have been adequate so far to cover the CAD’.

By adding further, he said the mismatch between the CAD and the capital flow is putting pressure on the rupee. Over the years as per Rangarajan, exchange rate of the rupee would remain within 52-55 range. Answering a question on whether there is any pressure on the capital flows, he said, Indian economy is still the fastest growing economy in the world and therefore, capital flows will come to India.

Meanwhile, FIIs have pumped in around $13 billion in Indian equities, so far this fiscal. The government is also expected to bring down the CAD to 4-4.5 percent of the GDP in the first quarter of this calendar year.  The country's CAD widened to a record high of 6.7 percent of GDP in third quarter of FY13.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,953.35 down by 13.70 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 6,015.30 and 5,936.80. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Steel up by 3.05%, BPCL up by 2.55%, Lupin up by 2.42%, Cairn up by 1.53% and NTPC up by 1.35%. On the flip side, Sun Pharmaceuticals down by 2.36%, JP Associaties down by 2.23%, Hindalco down by 2.20%, BHEL down by 2.02% and Tata Motors down by 1.99% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Hang Seng was down by 45.47 points or 0.20% to 22,624.21, Shanghai Composite down by 1.62 points or 0.07% to 2,274.05, KOSPI Composite was down by 0.61 points or 0.03% to 1,968.51, Taiwan was down by 39.24 points or 0.48% to 8,198.84 and Nikkei 225 down by 291.62 points or 2.01% to 14,173.15.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite strengthened 29.31 points or 0.57% to 5,150.71and

Stock markets in Malaysia, Singapore remained shut for the trade today for a public holiday.