Weak trade persist; Sensex gyrates around 21000 mark

Indian equities continued its weak trade in the late afternoon session on account of selling in front line counters and taking cues from global counterparts. The sentiments were on pessimistic mood despite Finance Minister P Chidambaram stated that government will not compromise on fiscal discipline, allaying fears of a spurt in public expenditure ahead of Lok Sabha polls, notwithstanding the defeat of Congress in four states, including Delhi and Rajasthan. Investors have started eyeing the October IIP and November CPI data, scheduled to be announced today, which is likely to disappoint. The IIP is estimated to fall to 1.2 percent from 2 percent in the previous month. Traders were seen piling positions in Power and Realty stocks, while selling was witnessed in Auto, Bankex and Metal sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Just Dial was trading in green on reports that the company’s shares will be included in the FTSE All Cap index starting December 23, 2013. Hectic activity was witnessed in stocks of GMR Infrastructure on reports that the company and contractor Megawide Construction Corp are the likely winners of a $400 million airport terminal tender, the biggest so far under the Philippines’ public-private partnership programme.

On the global front, 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 6,300 and 21,100 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 953:1314 while 157 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21001.55, down by 169.86 points or 0.80% after trading in a range of 21103.80 and 20986.63. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were too trading in red; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indexes were trading lower by 0.05% and 0.12% respectively.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 0.74% and Realty up by 0.57%, while Auto down by 1.82%, Bankex down by 1.21%, Metal down by 1.00%, Oil & Gas down by 0.93% and PSU down by 0.74%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 4.37%, Gail India up by 1.31%, BHEL up by 0.59%, HDFC up by 0.53% and NTPC up by 0.22%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 4.18%, ICICI Bank down by 1.85%, ONGC down by 1.70%, Coal India down by 1.54% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.50% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, India Inc has expressed hope that country’s exports target of $325 billion in the current fiscal would be met despite slowing growth of overseas shipments to a five-month low in November. Indian exports increased by 5.86 percent to $24.6 billion in November owing to the declined shipments of petroleum goods and rough diamonds.

Ficci President Naina Lal Kidwai underscored that continued rise in exports for the fifth month in a row is significant and the first eight months of this fiscal have witnessed a nearly 23 percent decline in the cumulative trade deficit. During April-November’ 2013, exports grew 6.27 percent to $204 billion. Rising exports will considerably ease the pressure on the current account deficit and make the rupee more stable. India’s imports fell the most in four years, by 16.37% from a year earlier to $33.8 billion in November, leaving narrower trade deficit of $9.22 billion as against $17.2 billion deficit in November 2012.

Chairman of engineering exporters body EEPC Anupam Shah highlighted that significant fall in trade deficit is a noteworthy development, which is largely a result of a steep import compression rather than a smart rise in exports. Assocham Secretary General DS Rawat mentioned that evolving trend strongly indicates that India's trade balance in 2013-14 would improve and falling imports are a welcoming sign at this juncture. Meanwhile, decline in the imports of capital goods owing to less investment activity and rising imports of consumer goods does not augur well for the domestic economy.

Chairman of the CII Committee on Exports and Imports Sanjay Budhia commented that India will achieve exports target in current fiscal. Meanwhile, he also expressed the need for the government to come out with a scheme to expand new products basket and duty drawback rates besides taking a holistic view and make special economic zones more viable.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,255.55, down by 52.35 points or 0.83% after trading in a range of 6,286.85 and 6,254.50. There were 13 stocks advancing against 37 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Power up by 4.48%, Gail India up by 1.28%, Ranbaxy up by 1.12%, BHEL up by 0.68% and HDFC up by 0.62%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 4.34%, Ambuja Cement down by 3.06%, Bank of Baroda down by 2.13%, PNB down by 2.11% and ICICI Bank down by 1.88% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in red; Seoul Composite down by 0.51%, Hang Seng down by 0.51%, Straits Times down by 0.09%, Nikkei 225 down by 1.12%, Taiwan Weighted down by 0.86%, Jakarta Composite down by 1.07%, KLSE Composite down by 0.38% and Shanghai Composite down by 0.06%.

The European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC 40 was down 0.18%, Germany’s DAX dropped 0.48% and UK’s FTSE 100 lost 0.35%.