Markets trade in red lacking any supportive cues

Markets are not showing any movement, crawling near the last closing level, lacking any cues to take them either way. Though, the trade has been choppy so far with benchmarks spurting to their high points of the day and subsequently succumbing to profit booking. Traders seeing the movement in their regional counterparts are staying on sidelines, waiting for the US monthly jobs data which would throw light on Fed’s further action regarding its stimulus tapering. Today, power sector are showing good move followed by the rate sensitive banking after the industry body in their pre-policy meeting with the RBI governor demanded announcement that there would be no further tightening and the Central Bank would start to move to a more accommodative monetary stance. IT sector stocks too have recovered as the rupee turned weak against the dollar. On the other hand oil & gas auto and defensive FMCG continue to be in somber mood. There was some concern in the oil & gas sector after the BHP Billiton’s decision to exit from all but one of its 10 exploration blocks in India, casting a shadow over the oil ministry’s 10th round of NELP.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20856.91, down by 36.98 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 20948.91 and 20849.78. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The broader indices continue to outperform the benchmarks for the second straight day; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.66%, while Small cap index gained 0.77%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 0.96%, Bankex up by 69%, PSU up by 63%, IT up by 54% and TECK was up by 0.43%. On the other hand Oil & Gas down by 0.59%, Auto down by 0.32%, FMCG down by 0.24%, Healthcare down by 0.13% and Consumer Durables down by 0.11% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 1.95%, Wipro up by 1.26%, tata Power up by 1.13%, ICICI Bank up by 1.06% and NTPC up by 0.71%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 1.83%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.56%, RIL down by 1.11%, Cipla down by 0.95% and ITC down by 0.78% were the major losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in order to provide a boost to manufacturing sector, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) is working on a proposal for granting interest subsidy to the sector. However, the finance ministry will take final call to extend interest subvention.

The department working under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, which is considering an interest subvention of 3-4%, opines that the benefits should be provided for manufacturers’ working capital requirements.

Further, the ministry’s plan comes on the heels of dismal industrial output data, which slowed down sharply to 0.6% in August, mainly on account of contraction in manufacturing and mining. The manufacturing sector, which occupies over 75% of the weightage in the index, contracted by 0.1% in August as against an expansion of 2.4% in the year-ago period.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,200.20 down by 4.75 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 6,220.10 and 6,187.90. There were 25 stocks advancing against 24 decline on the index, while one stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Axis Bank up by 2.39%, Coal India up by 1.84%, HCL Tech up by 1.75%, PowerGrid up by 1.71% and IDFC up by 1.38%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 1.97%, Hero Moto down by 1.70%, ACC down by 1.20%, Reliance Inds down by 1.11% and Cipla down by 1.02% were the major losers on the index

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined 0.82%, Hang Seng lost 0.43%, Jakarta Composite tumbled  by 1.20%, KLSE Composite was down by 0.06%, and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.02%.

On the other hand, Nikkei 225 was up by 0.13%, Straits Times was up by 0.39% and Seoul Composite gained 0.15%.