Benchmarks trim gains; Trade marginally in red

Indian equities trimmed gains to continue weak trade in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline counters. The sentiments were on cautious note with India’s fiscal deficit in the April-November period reaching 94% of the targeted budgetary estimate of Rs 5.42 lakh crore. However, there was some solace with the output of eight core sector industries growing by 2.5 percent during April-November, after shrinking 0.6 percent in October. Traders were seen piling positions in Realty, Consumer Durables and Health Care stocks while selling was witnessed in IT, Oil & Gas and TECK sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Lupin was trading in green on receiving US Food and Drug Administration tentative approval for generic version of cholesterol drug niacin, a form of vitamin B. Lakshmi Vilas Bank was trading in green as the board will consider rights issue on Friday. The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 6,350 and 21,200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1483:811 while 138 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21159.76, down by 10.92 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 21244.35 and 21159.41. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were outperforming the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.40%, while Small cap index gained 1.26%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.07%, Consumer Durables up by 0.76%, Health Care up by 0.63%, Metal was up by 0.37% and Auto up by 0.36% while, IT down by 0.50%, Oil & Gas down 0.21% and TECK down by 0.18% were the only losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 1.38%, Hero Moto Corp up 0.73%, Sun Pharma up by 0.60%, Cipla up by 0.56% and Coal India up by 0.50%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 0.71%, TCS down by 0.67%, HDFC down by 0.42%, BHEL down by 0.40% and RIL down by 0.40% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, disappointed over the slowdown in the highway projects, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has blamed abnormal delays in getting environment and forest clearances. The NHAI has noted that ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), through its recently changed policy, has created hurdles for environment and forest clearances, which have affected highway projects worth about Rs 20,000 crore and forced the NHAI to approach Supreme Court.

The NHAI highlighted that over the past two years, the highway sector is struggling with slowdown as around 40 highway projects have failed to commence or be completed. In the current fiscal, NHAI has managed to give just 479 km of road projects against its target of 3,000 km by September. In the previous financial year, only 1,116 km of projects were awarded against a target of 9,500 km. Furthermore, NHAI has stressed that it could have terminated the contracts and blacklisted developers for not fulfilling their contractual obligation however that would have meant annoying a large number of private operators.

Meanwhile, Road and Highway ministry has been taking measures to speed up the implementation of road projects. Recently, in order to attract road developers and to revive country’s highway sector, the ministry had approved a policy that allows infrastructure developers to exit highway projects by divesting their entire stake. New policy will help to expedite implementation of road infrastructure in the country and insulate the highways authority from heavy financial claims and unnecessary disputes. Further, the ministry would like to make provisions in the public-private partnerships (PPPs) contracts that allow re-negotiations as PPPs are long-term partnerships spread over 20-25 years.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,302.25, down by 1.75 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 6,327.20 and 6,301.65. There were 31 stocks advancing against 18 declining ones while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Asian Paints up by 2.20%, Ranbaxy up by 1.80%, Lupin up by 1.60%, Bharti Airtel up 1.41% and DLF was up by 1.26%.  On the flip side, Wipro down by 0.78%, TCS down by 0.74%, BHEL down by 0.73%, Kotak Bank down by 0.59% and RIL down by 0.54% were the major losers on the index.

All the major Asian equity indices are not trading today. The European markets were also closed for the day on account of New Year's Eve.