Equity Markets erase early gains; Nifty slips in red

Erasing all the early gains, benchmark equity indices have slipped to intra-day low levels, with Nifty even dipping in red terrain. Bout of profit-booking which emerged at higher levels have mainly dragged the Indian equity markets to day’s low, with the worst hit being the stocks from Auto, Bankex and Information Technology counters on BSE. Although, 30 share index, Sensex, has held its fort in green, above 20,000 level, widely followed index, Nifty, trading with slender loss, is off from its 6100 level, which it pierced through in the early deals. Worries over sub-five per cent readings in the March quarter GDP, which are due for release on Friday, mainly has led investors to undertake a cautious approach. Further, little volatility is also witnessed on account of F&O expiry week. On the global front, Asian Stocks halting five-day slump are trading in green as a weakening yen has boosted the earnings outlook for Japanese exporters. Closer to home, stocks from Public Sector Undertaking, Oil & Gas and Power counters are providing a lid to further slide of bourses. Further, investors are also drawing some solace from Finance minister P Chidambaram’s statement of India's growth story is here to stay. He said that the country has a huge potential and although it would continue to grow at 5-6% in the coming decades, a good governance and government can raise this trajectory to 6%-8%. The overall market breadth on BSE is in favour of advances which have outpaced advances in the ratio of 882: 796; while 100 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20,045.32, up by 14.55 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 20,139.28 and 20,011.88. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index.

The broader indices too pared off some gains; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were trading up by 0.34% and 0.40% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, PSU up by 0.98%, Oil & Gas up by 0.66%, Power up by 0.60%, Metal up by 0.43% and Realty up by 0.28%, while Auto down 0.26%, Bankex down by 0.23% and IT down by 0.05%, were the only loser on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 3.41%, Gail India up by 1.69%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.57%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.38% and ONGC up by 1.19%. On the flip side, SBI down by 1.15%, Hindalco Industries down by 1.13%, Sterlite Industries down by 1.09%, HDFC was down by 0.88% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.75% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that Indian economy will continue to grow at 5-6 per cent regardless of Government’s efforts, but with effective governance, economic growth can rise to over 8 per cent. The country should focus on ensuring the conditions for economic growth. He said that there is a need of effective and efficient governance and steps like efficient use of money, time and design of projects can propel the growth rate to 8 - 9 per cent in the coming years

By adding further, he said that huge landmass with untapped resources, large young population with high aspirations that demand goods and services and entrepreneur class are reflecting India’s growth potential. Indians have a set of values and their nature to work hard would facilitate this growth, he added.

The finance minister said that the developments in global economies should not affect Indian (stock) markets and instead the focus should be on the performance of domestic companies. Meanwhile, India's GDP growth is estimated to slow down to a decade low of around 5 per cent in 2012-13 owing to the prevailing global economic slowdown. Before financial meltdown in 2008, it was growing at over 8 per cent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,079.40, down by 3.75 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 6,111.35 and 6,070.75. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Coal India up by 3.39%, JP Associate up by 2.25%, GAIL up by 2.23%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.76% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.54%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.74%, IndusInd Bank down by 1.72%, UltraTech Cement down by 1.57%, Hindalco Industries down by 1.31% and Sesa Goa down by 1.25% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 2.46 points or 0.11% to 2,295.54, Hang Seng increased 29.89 points or 0.13% to 22,715.94, Jakarta Composite surged 61.77 points or 1.21% to 5,146.91, KLSE Composite added 8.46 points or 0.48% to 1,775.59, Nikkei 225 soared 158.16 points or 1.12% to 14,300.81, Straits Times jumped 7.41 points or 0.22% to 3,398.71 and KOSPI Composite was up by 5.81 points or 0.29% to 1,985.78.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted was down by 10.37 points or 0.13% to 8,269.73.