Benchmarks add losses; Nifty below 5,900 mark

Indian equity markets added losses to continue their weak trade in late afternoon session on account of selling in front line blue chip counters while taking cues from weak global counterparts. Traders were seen selling in Metal, Realty and Bankex sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Hindustan Unilever was trading in red after the company’s net profit fell 23.43% to Rs 1019.25 crore on 5.89% growth in total income to Rs 6985.79 crore in Q1 June 2013 over Q1 June 2012. Gitanjali Gems was locked at lower circuit limit on reports that LIC’s investment in the company is under FinMin scrutiny. Jet Airways was trading firm on reports that the Foreign Investment Promotion Board was likely to approve a planned stake sale to Etihad Airways. On the global front, major of the Asian markets were trading in red while the European markets were trading on a mixed note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 5,900 and 19,800 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 689:1376, while 137 scrips remain unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19719.42, down by 85.34 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 19907.45 and 19699.76. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The broader indices were too trading in red; BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading lower by 1.45% and 1.07% respectively.

The were no gainers on sectoral indices on the BSE, while Metal down by 4.28%, Realty down by 2.39%, Bankex down by 2.12%, PSU down by 1.88%, and Capital Goods down by 1.12% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 2.51%, Sun Pharma up by 2.28%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.74%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.18% and Cipla up by 0.63%. On the flip side, Hindalco Industries was down by 7.78%, Sterlite Industries was down by 7.10% , Coal India  was down by 4.45%, Tata Motors was down by 3.62% and  Hindustan Unilever was down by 3.57% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Chief Economic Adviser Raghuram Rajan said that all options to fund the country's record-high current account deficit are being considered. India's Current Account Deficit (CAD) stood at $18.1 billion, or 3.6% of the GDP in the March quarter, sharply lower from the historically high level of 6.7% seen in the December quarter. However, the current account gap for the full fiscal year ending in March 2013 widened $87.8 billion, which was 4.8% of GDP, compared with $78.2 billion or 4.2% of GDP, a year earlier.

Further, finance ministry's chief economic adviser defending Reserve Bank of India's move to manage volatility in the rupee, said that policy measures were geared in such a way that they would stabilise the weak rupee but do only 'minimal damage' to growth.

Notably, Raghuram’s comments came a day after State Bank of India chairman Pratip Chaudhuri opined that RBI to consider more transparent measures such as hiking interest rates in order to stabilise the domestic currency instead of simply tightening liquidity.

The RBI, in its latest attempt to shore-up the Indian currency, reduced the liquidity adjustment facility for each bank from 1% of total deposits to 0.5% and also asked banks to maintain higher average CRR (cash reserve ratio) of 99% of the requirement on daily basis as against earlier 70%.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,874.80 down by 32.70 points or 0.55% after trading in a range of 5,944.50 and 5,869.50. There were 15 stocks advancing against 34 declines while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were ITC up by 2.44%, Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 2.21%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.85%, ACC up by 1.41% and M&M up by 1.41%. On the flip side, Hindalco Industries down by 7.97%, Sesa Goa down by 7.25%, PNB down by 6.07%, JP Associates down by 5.23% and Bank of Baroda down by 4.54% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined 0.51%, Jakarta Composite slipped 0.48%, KLSE Composite decreased 0.14%, Nikkei 225 tumbled 2.97% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.17%. 

On the flip side, Straits Times was up by 0.03 %, Hang Seng rose 0.31% and KOSPI Composite Index up by 0.06%.

The European markets were trading on a mixed note; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.72%, Germany’s DAX lost 0.02% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 added 0.17%.