Benchmarks extend losses weighed down by software stocks

Indian equity benchmarks extended their losses in noon deals as profit booking in software and technology counters mainly played spoilsport with investors opting to offload stocks like TCS and Infosys after recent gains post encouraging second quarter earnings. Depreciation in Indian rupee against dollar too weighed down sentiments. The rupee extends fall to a second session with rupee was trading at 61.48 as compared to Friday’s close of 61.28, tracking mild weakness in Asian FX. However, losses remained capped as some support came in from capital goods counter after industry heavyweight L&T came up with a better than expected numbers during the weekend.

Global cues too remained supportive with Asian markets trading mostly higher with Japanese Markets trading higher by over half a percent at this point of time after Bank of Japan’s Governor Haruhiko Kuroda maintained an upbeat assessment of the economy, saying it is recovering moderately and will continue to do so. However, European markets trading lower in early deals with CAC, DAX and FTSE all exhibiting choppy trade in early deals.

Back home, on the sectoral front, capital goods witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by realty and auto, while software, technology 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 1216 shares on the gaining side against 873 shares on the losing side while 163 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20815.92 down by 66.97 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 20970.92 and 20787.56. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.73%, while Small cap index surged 0.85%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 3.70%, Realty up by 2.86%, Auto up by 1.11%, Metal up by 1.02% and Power up by 0.51%. On the other hand IT down by 1.69%, TECk down by 1.34%, FMCG down by 0.80%, Consumer Durables down by 0.76% and Oil & Gas down by 0.29% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were L&T up by 5.69%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.99%, SSLT up by 2.79%, Hindalco Industries up by 2.44% and Tata Steel up by 1.74%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 3.36%, TCS down by 2.54%, ITC down by 1.75%, BHEL down by 1.59% and HDFC down by 1.29% were the major losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a big respite to the ailing domestic Aviation sector, the domestic traffic grew for the second consecutive month despite steep fare increases by most airlines. Airlines had raised fares from September 2013 by 25-30%. However, the substantial number of flyers who travelled last month had actually purchased their tickets earlier when fares were low and the steep rise in fare may not have reflected in the numbers but the peak travel months of October-December may see some moderation in flyers due to higher fares.

As per data released by aviation regulator DGCA, traffic grew a healthy 13.4% in September with 45.55 lakh flyers against 40.18 lakh. The industry has seen constant fall in the past three years but witnessed a bounce back in the month of August 2013 with a robust 20.4% increase over the same month last year. Airlines wise, low-cost carrier IndiGo once again proved its superiority and remained the market leader with a 30.3% share in domestic travel in September, Air India closely followed and saw the highest aircraft occupancy for the second month in a row with 20.3% share. Jet Airways (standalone) was at 19.1% and Jet Group (combined with JetLite) 24.3% share of the market, SpiceJet at 17.3% and Go Air held 7.5% of market share.

Performance wise too, Indigo remained number one with 95.9% on time performance at 6 metros, followed by Jet group with 92.3%, SpiceJet 91.7%, GoAir 86.7%, while Air India continued to lag at bottom with 84% on time performance.

However, on the occupancy front though no domestic airline was able to fill even 75% of seats on its planes, Air India topped the chart with 73.2%, followed by IndiGo 70.3%, SpiceJet 67.9%, GoAir 67.5%, Jet 63.7% and JetLite 63%.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,178.30 down by 11.05 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 6,218.95 and 6,166.85. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 decline on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were L&T up by 5.84%, DLF up by 496%, Ranbaxy up by 3.36%, Maruti Suzuki up by 3.28% and SSLT was up by 2.92%. On the flip side, HCL Tech down by 3.55%, Jindal Steel down by 3.36%, TCS down by 2.68%, ITC down by 1.92% and BHEL down by 1.59% were the major losers on the index

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite was up by 1.54%, Hang Seng was up by 0.25%, Jakarta Composite was up by 0.83%, Nikkei 225 gained 0.91%, Straits Times was up by 0.12%, KLSE Composite was up by 0.06% and Seoul Composite was up by 0.03%. On the other hand Taiwan Weighted declined by 0.26%.

European markets got off to a negative start; with CAC 40 declining by 0.27%, DAX sliding by 0.26% and FTSE 100 losing 0.03%.