Benchmarks trade cautiously in green; Auto, Bankex top gainers

Indian equity markets continued to trade in green in the late afternoon session on account of buying in front line blue chip counters and taking cues from European counterparts. The sentiments however remained on cautious note after in an economic outlook survey by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry it stated that India’s gross domestic product will grow by around 6% in FY14, with the first quarter growth in the range of 5%. Traders were seen piling positions in Auto, Bankex and IT stocks while selling was witnessed in Oil & Gas, Power and Capital Goods sector stocks. In scrip specific development, MphasiS is trading in green on management buyout talks. A consortium led by senior management of Mphasis and private equity (PE) players is eyeing Hewlett Packard’s stake in the company. Ambuja Cements was trading in red after Credit Suisse downgraded the stock to ‘neutral’ from ‘outperform’. Wockhardt plunged following the company’s update that it has received a warning letter from the US Food and Drug Administration in relation to its facility in Waluj, Maharashtra, for not meeting manufacturing guidelines.

On the global front, all the Asian markets were trading in green barring Jakarta Composite while the European markets were too trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,000 and 20,200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 998:1087, while 145 scrips remain unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20241.06, up by 91.21 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 20264.90 and 20065.69.

The broader indices were trading on mixed note; the BSE Mid cap was up by 0.36% and Small cap indices was down 0.06%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 1.02%, Bankex up by 0.99%, IT up by 0.98%, TECK up by 0.90% and Realty up by 0.45%, while Oil & Gas down by 1.49%, Power down by 0.71%, Capital Goods down by 0.59%, Consumer Durables down by 0.47% and PSU down by 0.46% were the top losers on the BSE.

Out the Sensex, 20 stocks were advancing, while 10 were declining. The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 3.30%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.71%, Sun Pharma up by 2.24%, Hindalco Industries up by 1.59% and ICICI Bank up by 1.57%. On the flip side, BHEL was down by 6.82%, L&T down by 5.52%, ONGC down by 2.97%, Tata Steel down by 1.64% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab was down by 1.45%  were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, on the grounds of potential threat to country’s security, the Home Ministry has strongly opposed any move to increase the FDI cap in the broadcasting and print media. Apprehending 'undue' influence by big global players, the Home Ministry strongly favours control of media houses by Indians, and is of the view that opening up of current affairs TV channels, newspapers and periodicals dealing with news and current affairs may lead to meddling in India’s domestic affairs and politics.

The Ministry also fears that increase of FDI in broadcasting and print media may also allow foreign players to launch propaganda campaign during any national crisis as well as when interests of any particular country is harmed through any government decision.

Further, it feels that big foreign media players with vested interests may try to fuel fire during internal or external disturbances and also can encourage political instability in the country through their publications or broadcasting outlets.

It was basically after Home Ministry's strong objections that a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on July 16, did not clear the Commerce Ministry's proposal for increasing FDI in broadcasting and print media to 49% through automatic route. Currently, the sectoral cap for FDI in FM radio, uplinking news and current affairs TV channels and in print media is 26 per cent and the Commerce Ministry has proposed to raise it to 49 per cent through the automatic route.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,044.60 up by 15.40 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 6,064.15 and 6,004.25.

In the 50 share index, 32 stocks were advancing and 18 were declining, the top gainers of the Nifty were HDFC up by 3.45%, Bank of Baroda up by 3.29%, IndusInd Bank up by 2.90%, M&M up by 2.58% and Sun Pharma up by 2.38%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 6.71%, L&T down by 5.44%, Ambuja Cements down by 4.87%, ONGC down by 3.17% and Ranbaxy Laboratories down by 2.79% were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in green as Shanghai Composite added 0.61%, Hang Seng inched up 0.25%, KLSE Composite gained 0.14%, Straits Times increased 0.63%, Seoul Composite added 0.48%, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.54% and Nikkei 225 was up by 0.47%, barring Jakarta Composite which was down by 0.65%.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.41%, Germany’s DAX added 0.15% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 edged higher by 0.06%.