Markets continue to trade in red in afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade listlessly in red as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of crucial macro-economic data such as fiscal deficit reading for April-November and manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) scheduled to announce in coming days. Selling witnessed in realty, IT and capital goods stock in early deals ebbed as the markets remained rangebound. Meanwhile, investors were seen piled up position in metal, auto and consumer durables stocks. Sentiments got some support as the CII Business Confidence Index (BCI) increased sharply to 54.9 during the October-December period of 2013-14 fiscal, from 45.7 in the previous quarter. On stock specific, SSLT, Tata Motors and Coal India were trading up by over 1.10%, while, Infosys, Bajaj Auto and ICICI Bank were trading down by over 1% on BSE.

Among other stocks, railway stocks are on a roll and trading higher by up to 7% on reports that the government may allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in railways. TVS Motor Company has rallied nearly 18% to around Rs 81.40, its highest level since December 2010, on back of heavy volumes on the BSE as company registered healthy domestic retail sales of 180,000 units November 2013, surpassing market expectations. Claris Lifesciences has galloped around 16% to Rs 229 in early morning deals on BSE on back of multiple block deals.

On global front, Asian markets were trading in green with KLSE Composite up by 0.05% and Straits Times up by 0.29%.  Nikkei 225 up by 0.69% mainly driven by Japan's aggressive fiscal and monetary stimulus to revive the world's third-largest economy. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading up their psychological 6,200 and 21,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,130 stocks traded, 1,146 stocks advanced, while 871 stocks declined on the BSE.  

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21,164.82 down by 28.76 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 21,304.70 and 21,123.30. There were 16 stocks advancing against only 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.20%, while Small cap index up by 0.33%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.52%, Auto up by 0.51%, Consumer Durables up by 0.35% and FMCG up by 0.14%. While, Realty down by 1.02%, IT down by 0.59%, Capital Goods down by 0.53%, Power down by 0.45% and Tech down by 0.40%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SSLT up by 1.24%, Tata Motors up by 1.24%, Coal India up by 1.10%, Gail India up by 0.88% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.82%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.30%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.19%, ICICI Bank down by 1.07%, ONGC down by 0.99% and L&T down by 0.97%.

Meanwhile, showing early signs of revival in business sentiments and coming as a major relief for the economy, which has been struggling with slowdown for the last several quarters, the CII Business Confidence Index (BCI) increased sharply to 54.9 during the October-December period of 2013-14 fiscal, from 45.7 in the previous quarter. CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee stated that with the growing export performance and declining country’s imports, the slowdown in the domestic economy may have bottomed out in the second quarter and the trend could reverse henceforth.

Further, the survey highlighted that 58 percent of the respondents expect an increase in their sales in the third quarter of 2013-14 as against the 45 percent respondents during the previous quarter. A majority of the respondents around 42 percent felt that GDP growth in the current fiscal would remain in the range of 4.5 to 5 percent, whereas only 28 percent expected it to be in the range of 5 to 5.5 percent. Referring to exports’ growth outlook, CII survey noted that 53 percent of firms expect their exports to increase in the current quarter, up from 49 percent in the previous quarter. Moreover, 53 percent of the survey respondents expect fiscal deficit to remain below 5 percent mark despite the fact that subsidies will cross the budgeted target by a wide margin, and the impending general elections pose upside risk to government expenditure.

However, the CCI survey cautioned that the downside risks to economy’s growth have still not abated and supply side bottlenecks continue to pose a problem. CII has highlighted that the government should be careful about the upward risk to fiscal deficit amid falling tax collection and growing chances of disinvestment proceeds falling well short of target. Survey further noted that domestic economic and political instability, slackening consumer demand, high level of corruption, persistent high inflation and risk from exchange rate volatility are the top five concerns eroding the business sentiments in the country. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,298.05 down by 15.75 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 6,344.05 and 6,287.70. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were SSLT up by 1.27%, Tata Motors up by 1.10%, Coal India up by 1.06%, Gail up by 0.96% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.86%. On the flip side, DLF down by 2.74%, ACC down by 1.41%, JP Associates down by 1.39%, Infosys down by 1.38% and ICICI Bank down by 1.25% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in green; KLSE Composite up by 0.05%, Straits Times up by 0.29%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.77%, Nikkei 225 up by 0.69%, Taiwan Weighted up by 1.04%, Seoul Composite up by 0.45%. While, Hang Seng down by 0.13% and Shanghai Composite down by 0.17%.