Benchmarks slip to day’s low; Rupee’s woes hurt

Benchmark equity indices, paring most of their gains, are just about managing to hold their fort in green on account of mixed start of European markets. However, more than anything else, Rupee’s fall to record low level is mainly perturbing investors, however, this factor has turned to be chief reason for rally of Technology stocks that derive lion share of their revenue from foreign currency. Indian rupee hit a record low on Monday, escalating worries about the country's current account deficit and complicating the task of the RBI as it tries to loosen monetary conditions to spur an economic recovery.

On the global front, although Asian pacific shares are trading well in green, European shares, reversing gains after Friday's better-than-expected US payroll data, opened on mixed note on Monday.  Asian stocks rose on Monday with Japan's benchmark Nikkei leading the gains, surging three percent on the back of a strong gross domestic product (GDP) revision and a weaker yen.

Closer home, dipping near day’s low level, benchmark 30-share index and 50-share index, Sensex and Nifty, slightly hanging in green, were trading above their psychological 19,450 and 5,850 levels respectively.  However, the session turned out too taxing for broader indices, which have slipped in red terrain. On the BSE sectoral front, besides Technology stocks, Capital Goods, Oil & Gas and Fast Moving Consumer Goods counters are witnessing traction, however, much of the pressure is being exerted from stocks belonging from Consumer Durable, Health Care and Realty counters. Additionally, stocks related to FMCG space too have surged as southwest monsoon hit Mumbai a day earlier than its usual date on Saturday. The market breadth was favoring negative trend; there were 862 shares on the gaining side against 1157 shares on the losing side, while 132 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,444.04, up by 14.81 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 19,585.75 and 19,407.07. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index and one remains unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were trading down by 0.58% and 0.15% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Teck up by 0.15, Capital Goods up by 0.07%, Oil & Gas up by 0.05% and FMCG up by 0.03% while, Consumer Durables down by 1.71%, Health Care down by 1.14%, Realty down by 0.95%, Bankex down by 0.69% and Metal down by 0.55% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 1.92%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.54%, HDFC up by 1.50%, NTPC up by 1.45%, and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.09%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel was down by 2.35%, Bharti Airtel was down by 2.08%, Tata Motors was down by 1.71%, BHEL was down by 1.48% and Sun Pharma was down by 1.45% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, scarcity of coal continued to haunt electricity generation, which led India to witness a peak power shortage of over 9,000 MW in April this year. As per the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the peak power deficit, or shortage in electricity supply when the demand is at its highest, stood at 6.9 percent or 9,020 MW in the month of April. The peak power demand in the country during the month of April stood at 130,676 MW of which 121,656 MW was met.

State-wise, the worst sufferers were Jammu & Kashmir that recorded a deficit of 25 percent, followed by Bihar (20.8 percent) and Karnataka (18.7 percent). According to the CEA, scarcity of coal continued to haunt electricity generation and around 19 power stations in the country had coal stocks for less than a week. 

On the other hand, the western region comprising states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Goa suffered the least with 1.4 percent shortage. The western region's demand of power during the month was 37,763 MW and 37,232 MW electricity was received.

In India, electricity is produced with the help of coal, crude oil, water and natural gas. Currently, the resources allocated to energy supply are not sufficient for narrowing the gap between energy needs and energy availability. As on March, 2011 country's estimated coal reserves were at about 286 billion tonnes, lignite at 81 billion tonnes, crude oil at 757 million tonnes and natural gas at 1,241 billion cubic metre (BCM).

Around 83% of thermal power is generated using coal as a raw material whereas 16% of thermal power is generated with the help of Gas and 1% of thermal power is generated with the help of Oil. Coal was already being imported for thermal plants and the import of LNG and production of shale gas could be the options for gas-based power generating stations in the long term.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,883.85 up by 2.85 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 5,931.65 and 5,872.75. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were UltraTech Cement up by 1.98%, Cairn up by 1.84%, NTPC up by 1.83%, Hero Moto Co up by 1.52% and HDFC up by 1.51%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 2.31%, IndusInd Bank down by 2.18%, Ranbaxy down by 2.17%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.06% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.82% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng rose 0.35%, KLSE Composite jumped 0.91%, Nikkei 225 soared 4.94%, Straits Times increased 0.69%, KOSPI Composite surged 0.46% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.81%.  On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 2.23%. 

Chinese markets remained shut for trade today.

European markets got off to a mixed start; with CAC 40 declining by 0.22%, DAX rising 1.92% and FTSE 100 gaining 0.84%