Markets slip into red amid volatile trade

Following a positive start and subsequent retreat, Indian equity markets have extended early losses in the late morning session on Wednesday. Despite some positive global cues, investors appear a bit wary of making any strong positions ahead of the release of key economic data of IIP and the quarterly results from Infosys. In currency market, rupee pared early gains and was trading flat amid increasing dollar demand from banks and importers. On sectoral front, bank, consumer durables, information technology and healthcare stocks were attracting buyers, on the same time realty and capital goods stocks have retreated after a firm start. Oil, power, automobile and FMCG stocks were also trading lower, while metal stocks continued weak trade amid concerns about economic slowdown in China.

On the global front, Asian stocks were trading mixed after Chinese trade data under-performed market expectations and heightened concerns about a slowdown in global demand. Chinese exports for the month of June fell 3.1 percent from a year earlier, the first decline since January 2012. Back home, the market breadth was favoring positive trend; there were 1,048 shares on the gaining side against 819 shares on the losing side, while 107 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,384.61, down by 54.87 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 19,505.93 and 19,383.67. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.06% and Small cap index was up by 0.24%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durables up by 1.78%, Health Care up by 0.62%, IT up by 0.43%, Bankex up by 0.17% and TECk up by 0.13%, while Auto down by 0.81%, Metal down by 0.75%, FMCG down by 0.69%, Realty down by 0.57% and Oil & Gas down by 0.50% were the top losers on the losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 0.88%, Sun Pharma up by 0.75%, Cipla up by 0.69%, SBI up by 0.67% and TCS up by 0.0.50%. On the flip side, Tata Motors was down by 2.09%, Hindustan Unilever was down by 1.64%, Tata Steel was down by 1.61%, Hindalco was down by 1.34% and BHEL was down by 1.12% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, going by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's call that boosting manufacturing sector is key for achieving 8-9 percent economy growth, the government has set a target of trebling steel production capacity to 300 million tonne (mt) by 2025. With this development, the Steel Ministry is now expected to prepare a road map for the master plan in eight weeks. The target of 300 million tonne will be a quantum leap from the level of 89 million tonne achieved in 2011-12, and which is projected to climb to 120 million tonne this fiscal.

Singh, at a meeting of the High-Level Committee pointed that manufacturing sector has been underperforming and underscored the need to 'remedy' this situation by removing the 'bottlenecks that hinder its progress.

The growth of the sector, for long,has been hamstrung by bottlenecks in the form of land acquisition, environmental clearances and local issues. Huge projects like POSCO in Odisha and Arcelor Mittal in Jharkhand are facing difficulties because of such issues for over a decade.

In view of this, the PM-led panel in the short-run has proposed a pro-active facilitation of pipeline projects on priority basis by the Steel Ministry and the new investment facilitation mechanism in the Cabinet Secretariat.

Besides, it has also urged state-run Steel Authority of India (SAIL) to leverage existing infrastructure to expand capacity substantially and work out plans for capacity expansion and production of speciality steels by September-end. Further, the panel has also proposed to float project-specific SPVs for identified sites, which would assemble land, get necessary approvals and clearances and tie up water and raw material. This SPV later on could be offered in a transparent manner for takeover by investors through a bidding process.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,847.40 up by 11.60 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 5,879.35 and 5,847.25. There were 22 stocks advancing against 27 declines on the index and one remained unchanged. .

The top gainers of the Nifty were Lupin up by 2.76%, Kotak Bank up by 2.04%, Utra Tech Cement up by 1.77%, NMDC up by 1.70% and Asian Paint up by 1.15%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.06%, Tata Steel down by 1.78%, HUL down by 1.65%, BPCL down by 1.63% and Sesa Goa down by 1.46% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 1.51%, Hang Seng increased 0.66%, Jakarta Composite added 56.20 points or 1.28%, Straits Times was up by 0.49%, Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.51% and KLSE Composite was up by 0.12%.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 was down by 0.39% and KOSPI Composite was down by 0.39%.