Lower level buying prunes some losses of the bourses; Bankex counter bounces back in green

Lower level buying at Dalal Street has pruned some losses of the bourses as market men after sitting on their hands for six consecutive sessions, appeared to have bought out equities available at attractive valuation. Indian equity markets prolonged their somber run on Thursday, as a lack of concrete measures to stem Europe's sovereign-debt crisis continued to dampen sentiment, while a report from Fitch Ratings on Wednesday on U.S. banks' exposure to Europe also sent jitters across the global markets, also leading to a sedate close of Wall Street. However, some recovery emerged into the markets with the bounce back of the Bankex counter, while sustained gains of Realty counters too have aided the recuperation. Fitch came out with a report on US bank exposure to Europe, while it described current exposure as 'manageable,' they also noted that 'unless the euro zone debt crisis is resolved in a timely and orderly manner, the broad credit outlook for the US banking industry could worsen. Fitch warned that risks of a negative shock are rising and could alter its current stable outlook. Sentiments at Dalal Street were also influenced by Regional counterparts who have continued their bear run for sixth consecutive session. The US future indices were showing an uptick in the screen trade. On the BSE sectoral front, stocks from Oil & Gas, Information Technology and Public Sector Undertaking counters chiefly are bearing the brunt of profit booking. 30 share sensitive index on BSE-Sensex-declining over 50 points was trading lower tad above 16700 mark. Meanwhile 50 share index on NSE-Nifty-declining over 10 points was trading a little above 5000 mark. The broader indices too sustained its depressive mood. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of declines which thumped out advances in the ratio of 1222:834, while 80 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,721.64, down by 54.23 points or 0.32%. The index has touched a high and low of 16,799.27 and 16,656.92 respectively.  There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 declining one’s the index.

The broader indices too were trading in the red; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were down by 0.51% and 0.45% respectively.

Realty up by 0.57% and Bankex up by 0.19% remained the gainers on the sectoral indices on the BSE. While, Oil and Gas down by 1.60%, IT down by 0.72%, PSU down by 0.67%, TECk down by 0.45% and Power down by 0.43% were the top losers on the index.

The major gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 2.56%, Hindalco Industries up by 1.34%, Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 1.28%, Tata Steel up by 1.01% and DLF up by 0.92%.

On the flip side, Coal India down by 2.85%, RIL down by 2.41%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.73%, Tata Motors down by 1.18% and Jaiprakash Associates down by 1.12% were the top losers on the index.

Meanwhile, the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on food, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to meet on November 21 for considering a proposal to allow sugar exports for this marketing year that started last month, according to Food Minister K V Thomas. Meanwhile, Farm Minister Sharad Pawar also affirmed that issue of sugar exports will be discussed in the EGoM on November 21.

Indian sugar exporters are demanding exports for the sweetener since quite some time but the government has been reluctant amid concerns that it will stoke up the already high inflation. Government fears that allowing sugar exports may underpin commodity’s prices and with food inflation hovering at elevated levels, rising sugar prices will only add to the inflationary pressure on the economy.

Sugar production in India - the world's second largest producer and biggest consumer, is forecasted to be around 25-26 million tonnes in the current 2011-12 marketing year against an annual demand of around 22 million tonnes. Thus, the sugar industry is in quest of early decision on sugar exports policy as they believe that any further delay in announcing the policy would make exports unviable because global prices of the sweetener are softening.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,015.10, down by 15.35 points or 0.31%. The index has touched a high and low of 5,035.35 and 4,992.20 respectively.  There were 17 stocks advancing against 32 declining one’s while one stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Cipla up by 2.62%, Hindalco Industries up by 1.66%, Sunpharma up by 1.52%, Tata Steel up by 1.48% and Grasim Industries up by 1.27%.

Coal India down by 2.54%, Reliance Industries down by 2.19%, Siemens down by 1.89%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.80% and ACC down by 1.80% were the major losers on the index.

Asian bourses prolonged downfall as global jitters persist; Hang Seng lost 0.88%, Jakarta Composite declined 0.47%, KLSE Composite slid 0.38%, Straits Times descended 0.70% and Taiwan Weighted descended 0.13%.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite and Nikkei 225 were trading flat with negative bias of 0.01%, while Seoul Composite gained 0.26% were the top gainer of the index.