Benchmarks trade lower in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks after a positive start entered into red terrain and are trading with a cut of around one third of a percent as sentiments remained dampened after global credit rating agency Moody’s has said that uncomfortably high inflation coupled with supply constraints is impacting India’s growth that has slowed to 4.4 percent in the April-June quarter this year. Sentiments also remained down-beat after the RBI’s governor Raghuram Rajan has questioned central banks across the globe, whether current ultra-low interest rates are the right way to return to growth after the financial crisis, sending jitters back home.

Supportive global cues helped to limit the downside in the domestic markets with US markets ending higher overnight as a larger-than-expected drop in jobless claims mostly overrode worries about a budget standoff on Capitol Hill. Moreover, Asian markets too were trading mostly higher at this point of time with stock markets in Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore trading notably higher. However, the Japanese Nikkei remained lower as the yen strengthened against the dollar.

Back home, losses also remained capped after Indian rupee appreciated against dollar in early deals. The rupee was trading at Rs 61.93 compared with previous close of Rs 62.08 per dollar. On the sectoral front, oil and gas witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by software and healthcare, while banking, power and fast moving consumer goods remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices, however, outperforming benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 647 shares on the gaining side against 496 shares on the losing side while 70 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19951.73; about 57 points lower compared to its previous closing of 19893.85, and has touched a high and a low of 19981.57 and 19796.39 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 19822.43, down by 71.42 points or 0.36%. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 53.34% stocks advancing against 40.89% declines. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were up by 0.23% and 0.38% respectively. 

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 0.84%, IT up by 0.77%, Health Care up by 0.42%, Teck up by 0.38% and Capital Goods up by 0.22%, while Bankex down by 1.61%, Power down by 0.38%, FMCG down by 0.28%, Metal down by 0.26% and Consumer Durables down by 0.22% were the only losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 1.54%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.28%, Wipro up by 0.97%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.81% and Infosys up by 0.74%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank was down by 2.37%, ICICI Bank was down by 2.34%, BHEL was down by 2.33%, Bharti Airtel was down by 2.32% and HDFC  was down by 1.54% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a move to develop the country’s infrastructure sector, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved two highways projects under its flagship road building programme National Highways Development Project (NHDP), entailing a total expenditure of Rs 3,001 crore. These two highway projects include four laning of Solapur- Yedeshi (Maharashtra) section of NH 211 and 6/8 laning of JNPT Port road project of Mumbai and will expedite infrastructure improvement in the state.

It is reported that the cost of the 99 km long Solapur- Yedeshi project is around Rs 1,057.82 crore, while, Jawahar Lal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) Port road project cost is estimated to be around Rs 1943.37 crore including the cost of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and other pre-construction activities. The total length of  JNPT Port road project will be approximately 43.912 kms of which 20.95 km will be of 6-laning and 22.962 kms will be of 8-laning. Further, JNPT project corridor highway includes NH-4B and NH-348, which connects the JNPT with the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport in Maharashtra.

The development of infrastructure is a most critical prerequisite to boost the economy’s growth. Therefore, the government has set the $1-trillion investment target for the infrastructure sector for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17).

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,905.55; about 23 point higher as compared to its previous closing of 5,882.25, and has touched a high and a low of 5,909.20 and 5,854.95 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,859.55, down by 22.70 points or 0.39 %. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BPCL up by 8.10%, HCL Tech up by 1.84%, Ranbaxy up by 1.56%, Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 1.45% and Wipro up by 0.98%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 2.52%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.51%, ICICI Bank down by 2.35%, HDFC BANK down by 2.33% and HDFC down by 1.59% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 2.70 points or 0.13% to 2,158.51, Hang Seng increased 21.60 points or 0.09% to 23,146.63, Jakarta Composite strengthened 30.05 points or 0.68% to 4,435.94, KLSE Composite jumped 4.76 points or 0.27% to 1,778.92, Straits Times surged 22.08 points or 0.69% to 3,216.39, Seoul Composite added 5.93 points or 0.30% to 2,013.25 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 34.06 points or 0.42% to 8,218.74.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 declined 34.59 points or 0.23% to 14,764.53.