Benchmarks extend early losses; trade at intra-day low level in afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks extended their early losses and reached intra-day low levels in afternoon session amid weak global cures coupled with the profit booking witnessed in some frontline blue chip stocks such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Infosys and L&T. Sentiments were subdued as Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) projected growth of India's GDP at market prices to 3.4 percent in the current financial year from 3.3 percent in the previous fiscal citing that that rupee depreciation is putting pressures on inflation, public finances, corporate and banks with high external debt exposure. Further weakness domestic currency due to month end dollar demand from importers and subdued Asian cues also added to the pessimistic sentiments. Bankex was the top losers on BSE down by nearly 1.15% as the traders booked profit on banking stock after the previous day rally. Selling was also witnessed in teck, capital goods and IT stocks. Sugar stocks were trading higher between 4-17% on heavy volumes as private sugar mills in UP including Bajaj Hindusthan, Balrampur Chini Mills and Dhampur Sugar, announcing suspension of operations, following an impasse over announcement of state sugarcane price. On stock specific, Tata Power, BHEL and Coal India were trading up by over 1%, while, ICICI Bank, Cipla and Hindalco Inds were down by over 1% on BSE.

On Global front, Asian markets were trading in red with Shanghai Composite down by 0.02% and Taiwan Weighted down by 0.67% as global investors remain concerned over the US Fed tapering. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading over their psychological 6,200 and 21,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,131 stocks traded, 1,119 stocks advanced, while 896 stocks declined on the BSE.    

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20,784.20 down by 106.62 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 20,880.03 and 20,764.82. There were 10 stocks advancing against only 20 declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.43%, while Small cap index up by 0.51%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.40%, Power up by 0.79%, Oil and Gas up by 0.14%, Metal up by 0.12% and PSU up by 0.09%. While, Bankex down by 1.15%, Teck down by 0.53%, Capital Goods down by 0.50%, Auto down by 0.43% and IT down by 0.42% were losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 1.71%, BHEL up by 1.10%, Coal India up by 1.06%, SSLT up by 0.81% and TCS up by 0.66%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.90%, Cipla down by 1.72%, Hindalco Inds down by 1.49%, L&T down by 1.34% and Infosys down by 1.21%.

Meanwhile, in a move to accelerate the flow of long-term investments in various infrastructure projects and to provide a boost to country’s infrastructure development, the government is planning to establish infrastructure trust fund soon. This infrastructure fund is to be set on the same lines, as the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) prevalent in other countries. Under the infrastructure trust fund structure, underlying revenue of projects will be transferred to a trust and the trust will then issue units to investors, including foreign investors, who want to buy the units.

The government has identified development of infrastructure in the country a most critical prerequisite for supporting the growth momentum of the economy. It has been taking various measures to help fund the infrastructure sector, which is estimated to require around $1 trillion investment for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17).

The government has also introduced Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF), which is aimed at accelerating and enhancing flow of long term debt for funding infrastructure development. Recently, India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFCL) launched its first Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF) with targeted initial corpus of $1 billion. Further, in order to speed up the implementation of infrastructure projects, the government has also set up Cabinet Committee of Investment (CCI) and special project monitoring group. Furthermore, ‘Public Private Partnership (PPP)' programme has also been implemented in order to bring in adequate resources for setting up of a sound and efficient infrastructural base.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,172.30 down by 31.05 points or 0.50% after trading in a range of 6,198.70 and 6,165.10. There were 19 stocks advancing against 31 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were DLF up by 2.31%, Tata Powers up by 1.77%, NMDC up by 1.38%, Coal India up by 1.16% and BHEL up by 1.06%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 2.11%, Hindalco down by 1.85%, Cipla down by 1.81%, Indusind Bank down by 1.63% and L&T down by 1.57% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite down by 0.02%, Taiwan Weighted down by 0.67%, Seoul Composite down by 0.86%, KLSE Composite down by 0.28%, Straits Times down by 0.10%, Jakarta Composite down by 0.58% and Nikkei 225 down by 0.25%. While, Hang Seng up by 0.21%.