Paring all their initial gains, Indian equity benchmarks entered slightly into red terrain in noon deals as sentiments remained jittery on concerns that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) might increase interest rates again in the near future to rein in persistently high inflation loomed large. Sentiments also remained dampened after global rating agency Moody’s revised its forecast, on the Indian economic growth, lower to 4.5 per cent for 2013-14 from 5.5 per cent projected earlier, on account of deteriorating macro-economic indicators of the country. Though, the losses remained capped as Indian rupee, after a weak start, made a sharp pull back and strengthened by around 10 paise to trade 62.50 per dollar mark on the back of dollar sale by custodian banks as compared to its previous close of Rs 62.60 per dollar.
On the global front, European markets made a positive opening with CAC, DAX and FTSE all were trading with small gains in early deals. However, most of the Asian equity benchmarks were trading lower at this point of time as investors remained concerned about the debate on the US fiscal position after Senate is considering a measure to cut off funding for Obama’s healthcare law.
Back home, on the sectoral front, technology witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by software and metal, while consumer durables, capital goods and auto remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too turned flat and were trading mixed, while the overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of declines which have thumped advances in the ratio of 1029:917; while 154 shares remained unchanged.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19879.72 down by 21.24 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 20050.42 and 19782.78. There were only 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.
The broader indices were trading in mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.06%, while Small cap index down by 0.03%.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.10%, Capital Goods up by 0.81%, Auto up by 0.70%, Power up by 0.28% and FMCG up by 0.02%. While Teck down by 0.83%, IT down by 0.82%, Metal down by 0.70%, Bankex down by 0.44% and Realty down by 0.42% were remained the losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 2.04%, Tata Power up by 1.45%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.38%, Cipla up by 1.17% and L&T up by 1.12%. On the flip side, Hindalco Industries down by 2.23%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.75%, Jindal Steel down by 1.52%, Sun Pharma down by 1.48% and Wipro down by 1.42% were the top losers on the Sensex.
Meanwhile, Assuring investors that country’s fiscal deficit will remain within target limit, the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) Secretary Arvind Mayaram has said that the government will be able to meet its disinvestment target of Rs 54,000 crore for the current fiscal despite high volatility in the market. Presently, disinvestment proceeds are of great importance to the government as it has set target to contain fiscal deficit at 4.8 percent of GDP in the current financial year.
The government has set a target of Rs 40,000 crore from selling its shares in public sector units (PSUs) and Rs 14,000 crore for its stake sale in private companies. Till now, the government has raised only Rs 1,325 crore by divesting stake in public sector undertakings include Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC), State Trading Corporation (STC), MMTC, and ITDC. The government has raised Rs 23,920 crore through disinvestment in the previous fiscal.
Further, in order to cut government spending in non-critical areas, the government has recently announced a slew of austerity measures including banning government departments for holding meetings in 5-star hotels among others. In the previous financial year, the government was able to contain the fiscal deficit at 4.89 percent of GDP, against the budgeted target of 5.1 percent of GDP.
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,884.95 down by 4.80 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 5,938.40 and 5,854.55. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 declines on the index.
The top gainers of the Nifty were BHEL up by 2.36%, Asian Paints up by 1.84%, Tata Power up by 1.77%, Cipla up by 1.77% and Bajaj-Auto up by 1.54%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 3.20%, Hindalco down by 2.45%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.83%, HCL Tech down by 1.65% and Jindal Steel down by 1.40% were the major losers on the index.
Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Straits Times down by 0.05%, Jakarta Composite down by 1.66%, KLSE Composite down by 0.31%, Hang Seng down by 0.89%, Nikki 225 down by 0.07%, Shanghai Composite down by 0.60% and Seoul Composite down by 0.11%, while Taiwan Weighted up by 0.08%.
All the European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up by 0.41%, UK’s FTSE 100 up by 0.02% and Germany’s DAX up by 0.14%.
