Benchmarks add losses; Nifty below 6150 mark

Indian equities added losses to continue weak trade in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline counters while taking cues from global counterparts. Traders were seen piling positions in Health Care, Metal and Realty stocks while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables, Bankex and Oil & Gas sector stocks. In scrip specific development, SpiceJet was trading in red after Kalanithi Maran promoted- budget carrier announced a loss of Rs 559 crore for the second quarter of financial year 2013/14, as compared to a loss of Rs 164 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Punjab National Bank was trading in red after its July-September net profit halved, sharply below consensus estimates. Tech Mahindra was trading in green after touching its highest level since May 2007 after country’s fifth largest software services exporter surprised the market by reporting better than anticipated revenue growth in dollar terms.

On the global front, all the Asian markets were trading in red while the European markets were too trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 6,150 and 20,700 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 875:1324 while 164 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20624.34, down by 198.43 points or 0.95% after trading in a range of 20,821.01 and 20600.90. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 declining on the index.

The broader indices too continued to reel under pressure; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading lower by 0.41% and 0.62% respectively.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Health Care up by 0.45%, Metal up by 0.20%, Realty up by 0.12%, Capital Goods up 0.07% and FMCG up by 0.04%. While, Consumer Durables down by 2.34%, Bankex down by 1.75%, Oil and Gas down by 1.33%, PSU down by 0.97% and Auto down by 0.61% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 2.37%, Cipla up by 0.45%, SSLT up by 0.35%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 0.29% and ITC up by 0.28%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 4.00%, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.12%, HDFC Bank down by 3.04%, TCS down by 1.94% and Coal India down by 1.50% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Telecom Commission (TC), major decision-making agency of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), has asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to recommend the reserve price for the 800 MHz band within 15 days so that the government could auction the 800-MHz spectrum along with the 1,800-MHz and 900-MHz bands. The Telecom Commission is of the view that keeping 800 MHz band spectrum unsold would result in lower revenues for government and it may be appropriate to put the spectrum to auction to allow telecom players to determine the appropriate technology solution using the liberalised spectrum. The government has planned to conduct the auction on January 8, 2014.

Earlier, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had rejected TRAI's recommendation of an extended GSM band, taking spectrum out of the existing 800-MHz (CDMA) band as CDMA operators, including Reliance Communications, Sistema Shyam, and Tata Teleservices currently use it, and the proposed extended GSM band would block their further roll out.

Telecom Commission (TC) has also recommended raising reserve price for auction of pan-India mobile phone spectrum by 15% more than the price suggested by the TRAI in the 1,800 megahertz (MHz) and by 25% more in case of 900 MHz. Further, in order to enhance telecom geographical coverage, the Commission has also decided to modify the roll out obligation of telecom operators in a bid to ensure that all villages are connected. In India, around 50,000 more villages are yet to be covered by mobile operators.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,125.25 down by 62.00 points or 1.00% after trading in a range of 6,185.15 and 6,123.75. There were 12 stocks advancing against 38 declining stocks on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Steel up by 2.43%, Ranbaxy Laboratories up by 2.25%, HCL Tech up by 1.51%, Lupin up by 0.74% and DLF up by 0.60%. On the flip side, PNB down by 4.89%, HDFC down by 4.16%, Axis Bank down by 4.07%, HDFC Bank down by 2.99% and Maruti Suzuki down by 2.96% were the major loser on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in red with KLSE Composite down by 0.11%, Straits Times down by 0.82%, Jakarta Composite down by 0.38%, Taiwan Weighted down by 0.65%, Shanghai Composite down by 1.09%, Nikkei 225 down by 1.00%, Hang Seng down by 0.60%, and Seoul Composite down by 0.96%.

The European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC 40 was down 0.69%, Germany’s DAX lost 0.72% and UK’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.50%.