Benchmarks continue to trade in negative territory

Benchmarks continued to trade in the negative territory as selling in some heavyweights weighed on the indices. Sentiments got dampened by the weakness in rupee, which after two session’s of surge, is showing some weakness on demand for greenbacks by state-run oil refiners. Also, there was some cautiousness with the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) saying that Indian economy is expected to improve marginally in the current financial year with its GDP at market price projected to expand by 3.4 percent from 3.3 percent in the previous fiscal.

On the global front, most of Asian markets were trading in red after Ben Bernanke said low US interest rates will continue long after the central bank ends its program of bond buying. The markets in the region have risen this week to trade near their over one month high after China pledged to execute economic reforms. Sugar shares gained on reports that the Centre has reportedly convened a high-level meeting today, 20 November 2013 which is expected to discuss a relief-package for the crisis-ridden sugar industry in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. 

Back home, traders were buying, Realty, Power and Metal while selling were seen in Bankex, Oil & Gas and Capital Goods on the BSE. The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 1127:616. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 20,800 and 6,150 levels respectively. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20827.24, down by 63.58 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 20880.03 and 20811.91. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.61% and Small cap index gained 0.75%

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.80%, Power up by 0.99%, Metal up by 0.55%, Healthcare up by 0.10%, and FMCG up by 0.02%, while Bankex down by 1.03%, Oil & Gas down by 0.34%, Capital Goods down by 0.23%, Teck down by 0.23%, and IT down by 0.16% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 2.03%, SSLT up by 1.54%,  BHEL up by 1.34%, TCS up by 0.88% and Coal India up by 0.86%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank was down by 1.91%, L&T was down by 1.10%, Cipla was down by 1.04%, Infosys was down by 0.97%, and Hindalco Inds was down by 0.97%, were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has approved 20 proposals worth Rs 916 crore including Singapore Airlines proposal of Rs 303.18 crore to form a partnership with Tata Sons to start a full service airline.

Among other major proposals, FIPB cleared Rs 179.43-crore proposal of Religare Enterprises to issue warrants to carry out the business of Investment Advisory Services and Financial Consultancy, JM Financial proposal of Rs 22.19 crore to issue warrants to set up a core investment company and Rs 130 crore Perrigo API India's proposal to increase the foreign equity participation from 85 percent to 100 percent by way of issue of fresh equity shares and transfer of equity shares in a pharma sector company. Meanwhile, FIPB has referred to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) the Rs 1,400 crore proposal of Federal Bank to increase the foreign equity to 74 percent and for post facto approval for exceeding the foreign equity cap of 49 percent by 7.16 percent.

FDI is considered crucial for economic development of a country and to attract maximum FDI into the country, the government has been liberalizing the foreign investment policy. The government has relaxed FDI norms in around 12 sectors which include telecom, tea, pension and petroleum and natural gas. Now, it has also started exercise in allowing FDI in railways sector besides liberalising FDI norms for construction and housing sector. Further, a rise in FDI will help support the rupee, which depreciated over 15 percent against US dollar in 2013. Despite the government's various efforts to increase foreign investment, FDI during the April-August period of 2013-14 has grown by a marginal 4 percent to $8.46 billion, from $8.16 billion in the first five months of 2012-13, reflecting the need to take more measures to improve the business environment in the country.  

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,183.00 down by 20.35 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 6,198.70 and 6,176.70. There were 19 stocks advancing against 31 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were DLF up by 2.81%, Tata Power up by 1.96%, NMDC up by 1.83%, SSLT up by 1.52%, and Ranbaxy up by 1.35%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 2.42%, ICICI Bank down by 2.13%, IndusInd Bank down by 1.72%, Hindalco down by 1.33%, and Cipla down by 1.17% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Jakarta Composite was down by 25.38 points or 0.58% to 4,372.96, KLSE Composite declined by 5.14 points or 0.28% to 1,802.02, Nikkei 225 lost 8.40 points or 0.06% to 15,118.16, Seoul Composite was down by 15.29 points or 0.75% to 2,016.35, Shanghai Composite was down by 1.82 points or 0.08% to 2,191.31, Taiwan Weighted was lower by 39.09 points or 0.47% to 8,221.12, and Straits Times was down by 0.74 points or 0.02% to 3,191.34.

On the other hand, Hang Seng gained 67.13 points or 0.28% to 23,724.94.