Benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals

After a choppy start, Indian equity indices have managed to regain their green terrain and are trading in fine fettle with Sensex recapturing its crucial 19,000 mark supported by firmness in global markets. All the Asian equity indices, barring Shanghai Composite were trading in the green terrain at this point of time, led by gains in Japanese markets which rose over one and a half percent as the yen weakened on report that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering a corporate tax cut as a way to offset the impact of a planned two-stage increase in the sales tax. The US markets once again made a mixed closing at the first day of the new week, trading choppy on concerns about the outlook for the Federal Reserve’s stimulus program.

Back home, buying in Pharma related stocks too aided the sentiments as stocks like, Biocon, Aurobindo Pharma, Cipla and Sun Pharma edged higher as the Finance Minister has said that the government will soon finalise the foreign investment policy on brownfield pharmaceutical projects. However, gains remained capped on the back of weaker-than-expected industrial output data. India’s IIP contracted for a second month in a row, by 2.2% in June, against a 2% decrease in the same month of 2012-13. Depreciation in rupee too dampened the sentiments. The Indian rupee opened lower at 61.37 per dollar as against Monday’s close of 61.27 per dollar after a slew of measures announced by Finance Minister P Chidambaram to contain rupee depreciation and help narrow the current account deficit, fell short of expectations.

On the sectoral front, realty witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by software and power, while metal, consumer durables and fast moving consumer goods remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were going neck-to-neck with benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 826 shares on the gaining side against 387 shares on the losing side while 48 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 18895.26; about 51 points lower compared to its previous closing of 18946.98, and has touched a high and a low of 19056.73 and 18864.81 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 19033.19, up by 86.21 points or 0.46%. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 65.34% stocks advancing against 30.84% declines. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap up by 0.65% and Small cap indices up by 0.59%. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.98%, IT up by 1.56%, Power up by 1.45%, Teck up by 1.35% and Auto up by 1.24%, while Metal down by 0.94%, Consumer Durables down by 0.85% and FMCG down by 0.05% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.24%, Wipro up by 2.34%, NTPC up by 2.13%, Cipla up by 1.82% and Infosys up by 1.82%.  On the flip side, Hindalco Industries was down by 3.52%,  Jindal Steel was down by 1.56%, Tata Steel was down by 1.44%, ICICI Bank was down by 0.91% and ITC was down by 0.74% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, struggle of Indian auto industry continued for ninth straight month due to rising ownership costs and sluggish economic growth. As per the Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures (SIAM), the domestic passenger car sales declined by 7.4% to 131,163 units as compared to 1,41,646 units in the same month of 2012.

Meanwhile, motorcycle sales also shed by 1.52% to 8,09,312 units in the last month as against 8,21,821 units in the corresponding month previous year, while total two-wheeler sales in July 2013 decreased marginally by 0.06% to 11,31,992 units from 11,32,696 units in the same period of previous year as rising fuel costs and high interest rates continued to spill water on consumer demand.

Total sales of commercial vehicles, including trucks and buses, too tumbled 14.93% to 55,301 units from 65,008 units in the year-ago period. While, total sales of vehicles across categories registered a fall of 2.08% to 14,15,102 units in July 2013 as against 14,45,112 units in the same month of 2012.

Currently, vehicle demand in the country is passing through a very bearish phase with demand declining continuously month-on-month, growth in commercial vehicle and passenger car segments have slipped faster than expected in last few months. Indian auto component manufacturer too are facing the heat of a global auto slowdown.

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,600.25; about 12 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 5,612.40, and has touched a high and a low of 5,641.20 and 5,578.90 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,635.70, up by 23.30 points or 0.42%. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were DLF up by 4.51%, M&M up by 3.05%, Axis Bank up by 2.29%, NTPC up by 2.17% and Lupin up by 2.01%. On the flip side, Hindalco Industries down by 3.93%, Ambuja Cements down by 2.38%, Tata Steel down by 1.40%, ACC down by 1.21% and Jindal Steel down by 1.19% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Hang Seng rose 161.55 points or 0.73% to 22,432.83, Jakarta Composite increased 13.59 points or 0.30% to 4,611.37, KLSE Composite strengthened 8.97 points or 0.50% to 1,793.54, Nikkei 225 surged 226.41 points or 1.67% to 13,745.84, Straits Times added 9.62 points or 0.30% to 3,241.86, Seoul Composite soared 19.62 points or 1.04% to 1,904.45 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 64.02 points or 0.81% to 7,967.40.

Shanghai Composite was down by 0.50 points or 0.02% to 2,100.78.