Benchmarks pare early gains; trade flat in afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks pared early gains and were trading near their neutral line in afternoon session. The gain in IT, power and healthcare stocks was offset by the selling witnessed in banking, oil and gas and FMCG. Meanwhile, there was some buying in the broader markets with both the mid and small cap indices up by 0.57% and 0.95%. On sector specific, IT stock were trading high after Cognizant raised its full year's profit and revenue forecast. TCS, Wipro and Infosys were up by over 0.8% on BSE. Among other stocks, shares of rice exporting firms soared up to 10% on BSE on reports that the country has reported a record rise in exports during the previous marketing year. Torrent Pharmaceuticals, extending its over 13% rally in past four days, was trading up by over 3% on BSE after reporting 33% year-on-year growth in adjusted net profit at Rs 149 crore for the second quarter ended September 2013.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green with Japanese index Nikkei up by 0.79% and Shanghai Composite up by 0.32%. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading down their psychological 6,250 and 21,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,074 stocks traded, 1,171 stocks advanced, while 780 stocks declined on the BSE.       

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20,989.69 up by 14.90 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 21,045.38 and 20,944.50. There were only 15 stocks advancing against 15 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.57%, while Small cap index up by 0.95%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.23%, Power up by 1.04%, Healthcare up by 0.98%, Teck up by 0.95% and PSU up by 0.18%.While, Metal down by 0.73%, Realty down by 0.64%, Bankex down by 0.58%, Oil and Gas down by 0.42% and FMCG down by 0.06% were losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.35%, Tata Power up by 1.92%, TCS up by 1.69%, Wipro up by 1.42% and NTPC up by 1.32%. On the flip side, SSLT down by 2.20%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.55%, Hindalco Inds down by 1.36%, HDFC down by 1.05% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.95% were the only losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a move to seek better discipline from companies on unclaimed investor funds, the government will issue guidelines on unclaimed dividends that the companies may hold on account of deposits or dividends. .

As per the Companies Act of 1957, the dividend not paid or claimed within 30 days is transferred to a separate bank account from which the investor can claim his amount up to a period of 7 years. After that, the amount is transferred to the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) managed by the ministry of corporate affairs. As the penalties for non-compliance under this Act are not severe, companies are mostly tempted to transfer funds from the unpaid dividend account back to their balance sheets.

The ministry of corporate affairs will identify companies that have such funds but have not disclosed it to the Registrar of Companies. At present, companies credit dividends to investor accounts electronically, but this information is not completely provided by them. Further, most of the investors leave this amount unclaimed. At the end of FY13, unpaid and unclaimed amounts with companies stood at Rs 700 crore.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,249.90 down by 3.25 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 6,269.70 and 6,239.65. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 2.50%, Tata Power up by 1.98%, TCS up by 1.67%, NTPC up by 1.43% and Power Grid up by 1.26%. On the flip side, SSLT down by 2.30%, Ambuja Cement down by 2.20%, DLF down by 1.99%, ACC down by 1.82% and Indusind bank down by 1.75% was the major loser on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite up by 0.32%, Straits Times up by 0.02%, Nikkei 225 up by 0.79%, Hang Seng up by 0.26%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.11% and Taiwan Weighted up by 0.24%. While, Seoul Composite down by 0.01% and KLSE Composite down by 0.18%.