Markets creep into green; trade continue to remain sluggish

The Indian equity markets have slowly started creeping in the green, though the mood is still cautious but the recovery in banking and IT stocks are supporting the markets. The broader indices too are showing vigor and are outperforming the benchmarks. There are stock specific actions that are keeping the markets buzzing as the global markets have flattened out after the massive rally in previous session, and after the mixed closing of the US markets the Asian pack too is following the same trend with some indices marginally in red. Back home, the ease in weekly inflation number has cheered the rate sensitives and apart from marginal decline in realty rest all are trading in green. Private airline major Kingfisher Airlines has lost over 3 percent after Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) scrapped its credit line, putting it to cash-and-carry basis.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 16,503.40, up by 19.95 points or 0.12%. The index has touched a high and a low of 16,510.09 and 16,428.66 respectively. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The broader indices were outperforming the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading higher by 0.38% each.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Bankex up by 1.13%, IT up by 0.69%, TECk up by 0.52%, Auto was up by 0.50% and Health Care was up by 0.34%. On the flipside, Oil & Gas was down by 0.74%, CG was down by 0.21%, Metal was down by 0.17%, and realty was down by 0.09%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 1.94%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.73%, ICICI Bank up by 1.51%, HDFC Bank up by 1.22% and HUL was up by 1.20%.

On the other hand, ONGC down by 0.96%, RIL down by 0.89%, Jindal Steel down by 0.86%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.71% and L&T was down by 0.66%.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) withdrew more than Rs 3,200 crore from Indian securities market in November due to concerns over the worsening debt crisis in the euro zone. This heavy sell-off by overseas investors is also because of the decline in Indian rupee.

As per the data available with the capital market watchdog, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), in November foreign investors purchased stocks and debt securities worth Rs 62,296.10 crore and sold securities valued at Rs 65,559.20 crore, this translate into a net outflow of Rs 3,263.20 crore. 

During November, FIIs withdrew Rs 4,198 crore from the equity market and pumped Rs 935 crore into the debt market. On the whole, FIIs have pumped Rs 17,480.50 crore into the stock and bond market so far this year, compared to about Rs 1,79,674 crore in the whole of 2010.

Reflecting the uncertainty in global economy, the overseas investors were not very consistent while investing in Indian securities. Last month, FIIs invested around Rs 3,079 crore, whereas FIIs withdrew Rs 1,866 crore in September. And in August, FIIs withdrew around Rs 8,000 crore from Indian stock market and debt market, which is FIIs highest monthly withdrawal since October 2008.

The continuous withdrawal of funds by FIIs from Indian stock market is viewed as one of the major factor for the sustained fall of stock market in recent weeks. The number of FIIs registered with the SEBI stood at 1,743 as of November 2011, whereas the number of sub-FIIs was 6,187. 

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4,946.00, higher by 9.15 points or 0.19%. The index has touched a high and low of 4,949.25 and 4,918.40 respectively. The breadth was evenly distributed as there were 25 stocks advancing against 25 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Ambuja Cements up by 2.92%, Tata Motors up by 2.19%, IDFC up by 2.09%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.70% and ICICI Bank was up by 1.50%.

On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.22%, Reliance Industries down by 1.16%, Ranbaxy down by 0.96%, Sterlite Inds down by 0.95% and BHEL was down by 0.89% were the losers on the index.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Shanghai Composite lost 1.44%, Hang Seng was down by 0.49% to 19,041.36, Jakarta Composite declined by 0.38%, Straits Times lowered by 0.58%, Seoul Composite lost 0.12% and Taiwan Weighted declined by 0.49%.

On the other hand KLSE Composite rose by 0.14% and Nikkei 225 added 0.24%.