Weakness persist in markets amid sea saw trade

Indian equity markets were trading lower in the late morning session on Wednesday amid alternate bouts of buying and selling. Market sentiment continued to remain subdued as the Government and the RBI’s efforts failed to curb volatility in the rupee. In currency markets, rupee touched fresh all time low of 65.44 a dollar on Thursday amid dollar's strength against major currencies overseas after the Federal Reserve's minutes of its last policy meeting released yesterday indicated the central bank was committed to scaling back its asset-buying program, weighed on the local currency. On sectoral font, realty and bank stocks were among the most prominent losers. Information technology stocks, which found some support following the rupee's slide, have retreated from their highs. However, metal stocks trade firm on the back of better than expected surge in Chinese manufacturing activity. Oil, PSU, consumer durables and healthcare stocks are also trading fairly steady.

On the global front, Asian markets were lower in early trade due to continued uncertainty over the direction of US monetary policy. However an uptick in Chinese manufacturing data pulled stocks off their lows. Back home, the market breadth was favoring the negative trend; there were 707 shares on the gaining side against 1042 shares on the losing side, while 116 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,836.34 down by 69.57 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 18,007.27 and 17,759.59. There were only 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.75%, while Small cap index down by 0.33%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 2.12%, Consumer Durables up by 0.79%, Oil and Gas up by 0.63% and Healthcare up by 0.45%. While, Realty down by 3.16%, Bankex down by 2.72%, Capital Goods down by 0.50% and Power down by 0.41% were the top losers indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were, Tata Steel up by 5.22%, ONGC up by 3.31%, Sterlite Inds up by 3.22%, Tata Motors up by 2.57% and Bharti Airtel up by 2.31%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 3.48%, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.28%, Coal India down by 2.92%, ICICI Bank down by 2.79% and NTPC down by 2.19% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, giving some respite to the policy makers and showing signs that the steps taken by the government are helping in improving the investment environment in the country, foreign direct investment (FDI) into India increased by about 16 percent year-on-year to $1.44 billion in June 2013, compared to $1.24 billion, though the numbers still are the lowest figure during the calender year.

For the April-June quarter, foreign direct investment into the country grew by 22 percent to $5.39 billion from $4.42 billion during the same period of previous year. The sectors that received the maximum inflows during the first quarter of the fiscal include, pharmaceuticals $1 billion, services $ 945 million, automobile industry $ 515 million and computer software and hardware $171 million

Region wise, the maximum FDI during the quarter came from Singapore of $1.85 billion, followed by Mauritius $1.09 billion, Germany $510 million, the Netherlands $ 408 million and the US $ 315 million.

FDI inflows which plunged in 2012-13 to about $ 22.42 billion from $36.50 billion in 2011-12, raised concern of the government which requires a huge investment to mend its fiscal deficit and to fund infrastructure such as ports, airports and highways to boost growth. In this regard, the government recently has liberalised FDI policy in as many as 12 sectors which include telecom, tea and petroleum and natural gas.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,284.45 down by 18.10 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 5,333.20 and 5,254.05. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Steel up by 5.28%, JP Associate up by 4.28%, Ranbaxy up by 4.15%, Sesa Goa up by 3.56% and ONGC up by 3.49%. On the flip side, DLF down by 5.25%, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.27%, HDFC Bank down by 3.24%, Coal India down by 2.84% and ICICI Bank down by 2.75% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Nikkei 225 was down by 0.44%, Jakarta Composite down by 2.39%, Straits Times down by 1.31%, KLSE Composite down by 1.75%, Shanghai Composite down by 0.27%, Taiwan Weighted down by 0.23% and Hang Seng down by 0.55%.