Trade remains range bound lacking any cues

Range bound trade prevails at Indian equity markets lacking any cue to move the bourses in either direction. The regional peers too are not moving either, weighing down the sentiments of the domestic markets and keeping them in a tight range, every attempt of recovery was being sold out to profit booking. Now traders are waiting for the European markets opening to get some cues. Rupee that has shown some strength in last two sessions too was trading lower due to appreciation of the American unit against other currencies overseas. However, there was some support from the financial sector stocks after the Finance minister P Chidambaram signalled the start of a fresh round of financial sector reforms. In the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) meeting various steps to attract foreign investment and streamline procedures too were discussed. Sectorally, IT and tech were moving higher taking advantage of the rupee weakness, while the capital goods, realty and metal were dragging down the markets.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20690.30, down by 35.13 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 20738.76 and 20645.00. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The broader indices too were showing performance similar to benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.17%, while Small cap index has lost 0.29%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.92%, TECK up by 0.57% and FMCG was up by 0.09%. On the other hand Capital Goods down by 1.63%, Realty down by 1.62%, Metal down by 1.49%, Healthcare down by 1.09% and Auto down by 1.04% were the major losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 1.81%, NTPC up by 0.94%, Infosys up by 0.73%, ITC up by 0.66% and ICICI Bank was up by 0.64%. On the flip side, Hindalco Inds down by 3.88%, Tata Steel down by 2.51%, M&M down by 2.45%, Sun Pharma down by 2.38% and BHEL down by 2.25% were the major losers on the Sensex.

Global agencies have continuously been cutting the growth target of the Indian economy, which is under severe pressure due to the ballooning fiscal and current account deficit. Though, the government is making all its efforts to keep the numbers under budgeted limit but the global agencies are not obliging.

Now, the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) that had itself lowered the growth forecast for the current financial year to 5.3 percent from 6.4 percent it had projected earlier, has came to the defence and rejecting IMF and World Bank’s “unduly” pessimistic projections, PMEAC chairman C Rangarajan has exuded confidence that the growth would be around 5.5 percent in the current fiscal. Rangarajan further said that agriculture will do extremely well, while manufacturing too is likely to improve in second half. In August and September export growth rate was double digit that will also have an impact on domestic production. Therefore, we still stand by our earlier forecast,” he said.

Earlier this month, the World Bank slashed India's economic growth forecast for the current financial year to 4.7 percent from an earlier projection of 6.1 percent, while International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its World Economic Outlook, projected an average growth rate of about 3.75 percent, for India in 2013-14 and 5.1 percent next fiscal. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,144.65, down by 19.70 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 6,161.95 and 6,133.85. There were 14 stocks advancing against 36 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were HCL Tech up by 2.60%, TCS up by 1.72%, Powergrid up by 0.96%, NTPC up by 0.84% and Infy up by 0.79%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 3.84%, NMDC down by 3.79%, DLF down by 3.11%, BPCL down by 2.62% and Tata Steel down by 2.53% were the major losers on the index

Allmost all the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite plunged by 1.36%, Hang Seng lost 0.64%, Jakarta Composite dropped 0.37%, KLSE Composite slipped 0.29%, Nikkei 225 slumped by 2.75%, Straits Times declined by 0.19%, Seoul Composite lost 0.60% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.80%.