Benchmarks remain narrow range in late morning

Benchmarks continued to trade in a narrow range with Sensex and Nifty swinging between negative and positive zone in late morning.  Investor remained cautious ahead of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the US Federal Reserve's meet this week. Sentiments remained dampened as the foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into the services sector declined by about 62 percent year-on-year to $1.36 billion during April-October of the ongoing fiscal. However, the losses remained capped on report that the government has put on the fast track projects worth Rs 34,647 crore in petroleum and natural gas and power sectors by approving a number of them and giving directions for urgent clearances to the rest. Traders were also awaiting WPI inflation numbers to be announced later in the day, as it will have a major bearing on RBI policy meet on December 18 after the CPI surged to a nine-month high of 11.24 percent in November.

On the global front, Most of the Asian equity benchmarks were trading lower at this point of time with Japanese stock market drifting lower, despite the Bank of Japan’s Tankan survey showing an improvement in Japanese big manufacturers’ business confidence over the three months to December. Back home, traders were buying, Consumer Durables, IT and Teck while selling was seen in Metal, Oil & Gas and Auto on the BSE. The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 979: 678. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 20,700 and 6,150 levels respectively.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20735.29 up by 19.71 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 20764.52 and 20667.02. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.46% and Small cap index gained 0.51%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durables up by 1.18%, IT up by 1.13%, Teck up by 1.04%, Healthcare up by 1.02%, and Capital Goods up by 0.78%, while Metal down by 0.59%, Oil & Gas down by 0.57%, Auto down by 0.57% and FMCG down by 0.24% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 1.93%, TCS up by 1.01%, ICICI Bank up by 0.97%, L&T up by 0.95% and SSLT up by 0.89%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel was down by 2.21%, Hindalco Industries was down by 1.64%, Hero MotoCorp was down by 1.20%, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 1.12% and Tata Steel was down by 0.82% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, With an aim to enhance the country’s oil and gas production, the Cabinet Committee on Investments, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has cleared projects worth Rs 7,947-crore in the oil and gas sector for the companies such as IOC, ONCG CPCL and HPCL. Among the projects, Assam renewal project worth Rs 2,379 crore is taken up by ONGC. Furthermore, the panel also cleared a proposed Rs 5,200 crore worth LNG terminal project of GSPC at Mundra. Awa-Salawas pipeline project worth Rs 134 crore is allocated to HPCL and crude oil pipeline from Chennai port to Manali refinery project of Rs 126 crore is taken up by CPCL, while Rs 108 crore investment project of petroleum oil and lubricants tap off point at Kobra in Chattisgarh is allotted to IOC.

India currently imports around 80 percent of its oil needs and 25 percent of natural gas domestic demand. Meanwhile, oil ministry has formulated a roadmap for cutting India's dependence on imports to meet its energy needs. The Ministry wants domestic crude oil demand 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 kilometers, comprising 26 sedimentary basins. The ministry has already noted that that 10th round of New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) auction would be announced by January 15, 2014 under which the government would auction 86 hydrocarbon blocks.   

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,170.50 up by 2.10 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 6,183.25 and 6,152.90. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stock declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Infosys up by 1.89%, IDFC up by 1.79%, Axis Bank up by 1.33%, Power Grid up by 1.08% and ICICI Bank up by 1.07%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 2.35%, BPCL down by 2.08%, Ambuja Cements down by 1.85%, Hindalco down by 1.85%, and Tata Steel down by 1.82% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined 31.33 points or 1.43% to 2,164.75, Hang Seng dropped 163.22 points or 0.70% to 23,082.74, Jakarta Composite shed 51.47 points or 1.23% to 4,123.36, KLSE Composite slipped 4.86 points or 0.26% to 1,835.49, Nikkei 225 decreased 195.10 points or 1.27% to 15,208.01, Straits Times dipped 11.39 points or 0.37% to 3,054.63 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 40.74 points or 0.49% to 8,336.20. On the flip side, Seoul Composite was up 1.94 points or 0.09% to 1,964.59.