Indian equity pare gains; trade back in red

Indian equity markets pared gains, after keeping their head in the green for most of the day, the markets finally dipped below the neutral line following the major downward trend in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters. The sentiments on the street turned cautious after Moody’s stated that the rupee’s weakness reflects domestic economic challenges, primarily a high current account deficit and lower capital flows, but does not significantly impact India’s foreign debt repayment capacity. Traders were seen piling position in IT and TECK stocks while selling was witnessed in Realty, Metal and Bankex sector stocks. Hectic activity was noticed in power stocks after Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved coal price pass-through mechanism, which will allow the power companies to pass the entire additional cost of imports to consumers as against the averaging of prices of imported and domestic coal under the earlier planned price-pooling mechanism. In scrip specific development, Prime Focus was trading in green after investment banking firm Macquarie reported that it will acquire stake in the global entertainment services company’s subsidiary. Future Retail plunged quoting ex-scheme of demerger from today. The company demerged its fashion business in November 2012 and formed a new company called Future Lifestyle Fashions (FLFL).

On the global front, all the Asian markets were trading in red barring Nikkei 225 while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 5,650 and 18,700 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 975:1190, while 135 scrips remain unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,661.36, down by 57.93 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 18,820.81 and 18,615.14. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.

The broader indices were too trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.20% and Small cap index was down 0.14%.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.77% and TECK up by 0.42%, while Realty down by 2.40%, Metal down by 2.35%, Bankex down by 1.23%, Consumer Durables down 0.78% and Oil & Gas down by 0.46% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 1.41%, NTPC up by 1.39%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.34%, Infosys up by 1.19% and ONGC up by 1.07%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 10.38%, Hindalco Industries down by 4.20%, Sun Pharma down by 2.20%, Sterlite Industries down by 1.84% and Tata Steel was down by 1.76% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in order to strength the power distribution sector, the Power Ministry has pitched for an extension of Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (R-APDRP) for the 12th and 13th Five-Year Plan period. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) is likely to discuss the proposal soon and if accepted the scheme would cost Rs 10,830 crore in the 12th Five-Year Plan and Rs 11,897 crore in the 13th Plan.

To implement R-APDRP programme, the union government would facilitate loans of Rs 50,000 crore to States out of which Rs 31,577 crore would be converted to grant. Meanwhile, the programme is divided into two parts in which first part includes projects for establishment of baseline data and implementing IT applications, billing and customer care services, among others, while, the second part includes projects that strengthen the distribution network. 

The government has introduced the R-APDRP programme in the 11th Five-Year Plan to reduce the power distribution losses and sanctioned projects worth Rs 5,242.64 crore, which covered 1,401 villages in 29 states and union territories during the plan.   

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,641.85 down by 14.05 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 5,686.15 and 5,616.85. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 2.43%, NTPC up by 1.71%, ONGC up by 1.64%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.47% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.39%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 9.80%, Bank of Baroda down by 5.25%, Hindalco Industries down by 4.19%, Reliance Infrastructure down by 3.63% and PNB down by 3.08% were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in red barring Nikkei 225 which was up by 1.66% the sole gainer; Shanghai Composite declined 0.52%, Hang Seng tumbled 0.59%, Jakarta Composite declined 1.69%, KLSE Composite dipped 0.12%, Straits Times dropped 0.11%, KOSPI Composite contracted 1.49% and Taiwan Weighted plunged 1.34%. 

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.63%, Germany’s DAX added 0.31% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 edged higher by 0.41%.