Benchmarks slip to day’s low; Sensex slips into negative terrain

Benchmark equity indices, paring all its gains, are trading near day’s low point, with Sensex even slipping into the negative territory, little above its 20,900 psychological level and Nifty just about managing to keep its head above water, tad below the crucial 6,250 level. Mostly negative global cues and lack of positive domestic trigger are mainly encouraging market-participants in shorting their long positions. This combined with prevailing caution ahead of the US monthly jobs data, which could help set expectations about the timing of any tapering in US stimulus ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting in December that has also dragged most of Asian peers lower, also were restricting gains. However, investors seem to draw some solace from country’s Prime Minister’s statement, who highlighted that the country's growth rate had more than doubled to an annual average of over seven percent and the economy was on an upward trajectory in the last 20 years.

Back on D-street, while broader indices still holding their neck in green, were trading with modest gains of over quarter of a percent. Sectorally, Consumer Durable, Power and Auto counters were the top gainers of the session, while Realty, Banking and Information Technology were the top laggards. Two-wheeler stocks gain on optimism about their earnings outlook, while Hero MotoCorp gained over 2%, Eicher Motors added 1.5%. On the flip side, banking shares, which gained maximum traction in previous sessions’ trade, were down on profit-booking. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1106:1016; while 152 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20939.93, down by 17.88 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 21,049.84 and 20922.45. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices trimmed part of its gains; the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap indexes up by 0.26% and 0.22% respectively.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durable up by 1.34%, Power up by 1.29%, Auto up by 0.58%, Healthcare up by 0.47% and Capital Goods up by 0.26%. While, Realty down by 0.34%, Bankex down by 0.32%, IT down by 0.18% and Teck down by 0.12% were losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 3.42%, NTPC up by 2.60%, Hero Moto Corp up by 2.25%, Tata Power up by 1.74% and ONGC up by 1.12%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 1.32%, Hindalco Inds down by 1.19%, HDFC Bank down by 1.13, Bharti Airtel down by 1.03%, and HUL down by 0.76%.

Meanwhile, As per the HSBC survey, business activity in emerging markets grew at the fastest rate in eight months in November. The composite HSBC emerging markets index increased to 52.1 in the reported month from 51.7 in October and also remained above sub-50.0 level that divides expansions in activity from contractions. The increase in index was mainly on the back of strong momentum in Chinese manufacturing activity where stronger domestic demand drove manufacturing growth to its sharpest increase since March.

China HSBC composite manufacturing and services PMI for China increased to 52.3 in November from 51.8 in October. Meanwhile, the HSBC composite manufacturing and services PMI for Brazil and Russia, though witnessed a decline over the previous month, yet remained above the 50 mark. The PMI for Brazil declined to 51.8 in November from 52 in the previous month and for Russia it fell to 52.2 from 53.3. The survey further added that other emerging markets also saw faster growth in manufacturing, with Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey benefiting from the euro zone`s ongoing recovery.

India`s large but challenged economy weighed on the index, with a fifth month of overall contraction. The HSBC index for India increased in November to 48.5 over the previous month (47.5) but remained below the 50 mark that indicates expansion. Referring to the growth in India, the HSBC said that manufacturing business conditions in the country are turning to positive after a few months of contraction. Private sector outlook in India is likely to increase in near future.  Among the largest emerging markets, Brazil continued to post a marked degree of sentiment regarding future output as compared to China and India. Meanwhile, Russian firms were less optimistic about future growth.   

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,242.75, up by 1.65 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 6,268.15 and 6,230.75. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 declining stocks on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Coal India up by 3.16%, NTPC up by 2.88%, Hero Moto Corp up by 2.32%, Tata Power up by 1.92%, and Power Grid Corporation up by 1.87%. On the flip side, JP Associates down by 2.08%, IDFC down by 1.95%, HDFC Bank down by 1.19%, HDFC down by 1.18% and Hindalco down by 1.11% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading mixed; KLSE Composite down by 0.61%, Straits Times down by 1.77%, and Taiwan Weighted down by 0.34%, while Seoul Composite up by 0.22%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.66%, Shanghai Composite up by 0.57%, and Hang Seng gained 0.33%.