Benchmarks continue to trade in negative territory

Benchmarks continue to trade in negative territory in late morning deals in absence of cues from global peers and ahead of the November series expiry. Investor’s  sentiments got  dampened as global cues remained choppy with the US markets ending flat overnight, there were early gains on the back of better than expected reports on building permits and home prices but the major indices pulled back sharply going into the close. Moreover, Asian markets too were exhibiting mixed trend at this point of time as investors remained cautious and indulged in some selling following a flat lead from Wall Street overnight. The loss on the down -side remained capped Indian rupee opened stronger on corporate dollar inflows, with the pair at 62.28/29 versus its previous close of 62.50/51.

Back home, traders were buying, Auto, FMCG and Oil & Gas while selling were seen in Capital Goods, Bankex and Realty on the BSE. Sugar stocks too remained jubilant with scrips like Balrampur Chini, Shree Renuka Sugar, Bajaj Hindusthan, Triveni Engineering etc edged higher on report that the Food Ministry will soon seek Cabinet nod for providing interest-free loans to cash-starved sugar mills to help them meet working capital requirements.

The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 840:826. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 20,300 and 6,000 levels respectively.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20391.78, down by 33.24 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 20482.67 and 20388.36. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.14% and Small cap index lost 0.05%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 0.19%, FMCG up by 0.23%, Oil & Gas up by 0.19%, Consumer Durables up by 0.12%, and PSU up by 0.01%, while Capital Goods down by 0.52%, Bankex down by 0.50%, Realty down by 0.40%, Power down by 0.37%, and Teck down by 0.33% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 1.99%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.82%, Hindalco Inds up by 1.22%, ONGC up by 0.98%, and ITC up by 0.43%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.47%, SSLT down by 1.47%, HDFC Bank down by 0.87%, Tata Power down by 0.71%, and BHEL down by 0.68% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily has said that 10th round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) auction would be announced by January 15, 2014. Oil minister further added that the government would auction 86 hydrocarbon blocks out of which 54 blocks have received clearances from various agencies and the rest of blocks will get approval by the time of bidding in January next year. A number of oil and gas blocks in the past were stuck due to lack of clearances from various agencies include Defence and Environmental ministries.

10th round of NELP auction will be the second highest offering of blocks since the advent of NELP in 1997, a common platform for public and private sector companies to bid for the blocks. As per the government, 10th round of auction is likely to be held on new terms wherein a bidder shall be asked to quote the amount of oil or gas output it is willing to offer to the government from the first day of production. Presently, oil companies are allowed to share the profit with the government only after recovering the entire cost of exploration and production.

Meanwhile, oil ministry has formulated a roadmap for cutting India's dependence on imports to meet its oil needs. India currently imports around 80 percent of its oil needs and the Ministry wants this to be cut to 50 percent by 2020 and by 25 percent in 2025 through intensive exploration and exploitation of untapped reserves. Presently, only 0.93 million sq km area in India is held under exploration and production in 19 basins as compared to total estimated sedimentary area of 3.14 million square kilometres, comprising 26 sedimentary basins.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,046.60 down by 12.50 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 6,074.00 and 6,043.55. There were 14 stocks advancing against 35 stock declines while 1 stock remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Dr. Reddy's Laboratories up by 1.65%, Tata Motors up by 1.63%, Hindalco up by 1.10%, ONGC up by 0.98%, and HCL Tech up by 0.78%. On the flip side, JP Associaties down by 2.84%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.70%, SSLT down by 1.56%, IDFC down by 1.38% and Ranbaxy down by 1.01% were the top losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Shanghai Composite surged 15.10 points or 0.69% to 2,198.17, Hang Seng soared 128.47 points or 0.54% to 23,809.75, Jakarta Composite added 33.69 points or 0.66% to 5,155.09, Seoul Composite was up by 4.26 points or 0.22% to 1,973.45 and Nikkei 225 increased 128.47 points or 0.89% to 14,612.45.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite slipped 10.82 points or 0.61% to 1,773.06, Straits Times contracted 61.20 points or 1.77% to 3,393.17, and Taiwan Weighted was down by 28.05 points or 0.34% to 8,209.78.