Indian equities continue to show lackadaisical moves at the lowest point of day

Indian equities continue to show its lackadaisical moves at lowest point of the day, in line with global peers as risk-averse investors were shifting to safer investments on rising concerns of Euro-zone debt crisis. It seems bears have taken the firm control over the market and have not given any chance for bulls to rally. With F&O expiry scheduled this week we are likely to witness volatile sessions across the trade. Traders were seen selling in Consumer Durables, Metal and Auto sector. SAIL, Sterlite, Sesa Goa, Jindal Steel, Hindalco and Tata Steel from Metal sector were down by around more than one to five percent putting pressure on the markets. Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, M&M and Hero MotoCorp from Auto pack were down exerting the pressure on the markets. Index heavyweight RIL is seen trading with a cut off around more than two and half percent helping market bleed, with the stock falling for the sixth straight trading day. ONGC, GAIL, Cairn India, IOC, HPCL, BPCL and Cairn India from OIL & Gas sector were too trading weak exerting pressure on the market. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank, PNB, Axis Bank and SBI from banking space were trading in red dragging the markets lower.HCL Technologies, TCS, Wipro and Infosys from IT pack were trading weak exerting pressure on the market.

However, Maruti, Coal India, Reliance Power, HUL and Sun Pharma were trading firm in green preventing the markets from falling down further. In scrip specific development, Bharti Airtel is trading weak after the Central Bureau of Investigation on November 19, 2011, conducted search at the firm's office in Gurgaon. Great Offshore, JSW Holdings and Gitanjali Gems were trading in red on account of selling pressure on reports that the stocks are to be excluded from the derivatives segment on the National Stock Exchange. On the global front, all Asian markets were seen trading in red while the European markets were too trading in red on pessimistic note. Sentiments were undermined by political bickering in Europe over the ways to avert the sovereign debt debacle. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 4,850 and 16,100 levels, respectively. The market breadth on the BSE was negative in the ratio of 903:1698 while, 132 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,076.07 down by 295.44 points or 1.80% after trading as high as and 16,297.03 as low as 16,074.64. There were 3 stocks advancing against 27 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in the negative zone; the BSE Mid cap index plunged 1.17% while Small cap shed 0.80%.

On the BSE sectoral space there were no gainers while Consumer Durables down 2.53%, Metal down 2.46%, Auto down 2.34%, Oil & Gas down 2.19% and Bankex down 2.03% were the major losers in the space.

Maruti Suzuki up 0.78%, Coal India up 0.54% and Sun Pharma up 0.27% were the only gainers on the Sensex, while Sterlite down 4.71%, Tata Motors down 4.40%, BHEL down 4.06%, Bajaj Auto down 3.53% and Jindal Steel down 3.12% were the major losers on the index.

Meanwhile, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI’s) latest August subscriber figures showed that the more than 27.13% of the total GSM spectrum allocated to new companies such as Uninor, Datacom , S Tel, Loop and Etisalat, serves less than 5% mobile subscribers in India.

These five companies jointly hold around 375.2 MHz of 2G GSM spectrum of all spectrums allocated till date. However they serve just 4.8% of total subscriber base, this includes the old BPL Mumbai circle, taking Loop's tally in subscriber base up to 3.18 million. Without Mumbai, Loop just has 3,067 users in remaining 21 circles. 

According to the TRAI’s August subscriber data, these five new entrants still don’t have a single subscribers in 33 of their 94 circles. On the other hand, the two dual technology CDMA/GSM operators, i.e. Reliance ADAG and Tata now account for 13.9% of GSM spectrum in addition to their CDMA spectrum holding since 2003.

The dual technology operators who are using combination of GSM and CDMA spectrum serve around 27% of user base. Both Reliance ADAG and Tata form most part, hold around 5 MHz of CDMA spectrum in each of the 22 telecom circles in addition to their GSM allotment.

On the contrary, the major GSM operators like Bharti, Vodafone, Idea and Aircel holds 43.79% of the total GSM and serve around 53.7% of the total subscriber base. The TRAI says that, of this, 12% is excess spectrum beyond the contracted amount for which it recommends an additional levy of Rs 6,264.52 crore.

The government-owned operators such as MTNL and BSNL jointly hold around 15.21% of GSM spectrum with additional access to significant quantities of CDMA spectrum. Both MTNL and BSNL jointly serve 11.68% of India’s subscriber base.

This unclear spectrum utility vis-à-vis subscriber base has prompted the government to hasten fresh Mergers and Acquisition norms and exit policy. New telecom companies have only been in operation for 2-3 years, which makes an absolute comparison of subscriber base unfair.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4,813.45, lower by 92.35 points or 1.88% after trading as high as 4,873.80 and as low as 4,813.10. There were 5 stocks advancing against 45 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Maruti up 0.90%, Coal India up 0.79%, Reliance Power up 0.28%, HUL up 0.06% and Sun Pharma up 0.01%.

SAIL down 5.09%, Sterlite down 4.81%, Sesa Goa down 4.79%, Tata Motors down 4.37% and BHEL down 3.87% were the major losers on the index.

Asian markets continued to trade on a disappointing note, Shanghai Composite dropped 0.06%, Hang Seng sank 1.44%, Jakarta Composite plunged 1.82%, KLSE Composite shed 1.16%, Nikkei 225 declined 0.32%, Straits Times slipped 0.73%, Seoul Composite slumped 1.04% and Taiwan Weighted nosedived 2.64%.

The European markets were trading in red with, France’s CAC 40 down 2.28%, Germany's DAX declined 1.79% and Britain’s FTSE 100 down 1.36%.