Benchmarks continue to trade marginally in red

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade marginally in red in afternoon session amid selling witnessed in realty, banking and capital goods stocks. Depreciation in rupee value against dollar weighed on investors’ sentiments. Meanwhile, markets’ losses remain capped on the back of buying in metal, IT and power stocks. Sentiments got some support as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asserted that there was no need to worry about the future growth of Indian economy as the country was heading towards better times. Furthermore, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 79.68 crore in the previous session. IT stocks were trading higher ahead of IT major Infosys FY 14 Q3 result scheduled to be announce on January 10. On stock specific movement, SSLT, NTPC and Dr Reddy’s Lab were trading up by over 1.70%, while, Axis Bank, Hindalco Inds and L&T were trading down by over 1.70% on BSE.

Among other stocks, Jubilant FoodWorks has dipped over 3% at Rs 1,225 after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) barred buying by FIIs in shares of the company as the foreign shareholding has reached the trigger limit. Suven Life Sciences has surged 6% to Rs 81.45 after the company announced that it has secured three products patents each from Australia, Sri Lanka and South Korea.

On global front, Asian shares were trading mixed with Shanghai Composite down by 0.08%, Nikkei 225 down by 1.54% as US markets showed lacklustre performance on Wall Street overnight and ahead of a key U.S. jobs report due out the following day. 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 2,175 stocks traded, 1,103 stocks advanced, while 926 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20,707.50 down by 21.88 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 20,778.13 and 20,669.80. There were 13 stocks advancing against only 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.02%, while Small cap index up by 0.28%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.23%, Power up by 0.48%, IT up by 0.40%, Oil and Gas up by 0.39% and Teck up by 0.36%. While, Realty down by 0.98%, Bankex down by 0.87%, Capital Goods down by 0.86%, FMCG down by 0.82% and Auto down by 0.26%  was the only losing index on BSE.  

The top gainers on the Sensex were SSLT up by 4.46%, NTPC up by 2.05%, Dr Reddy’s Lab up by 1.78%, ONGC up by 1.76% and Coal India up by 1.44%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 2.17%, Hindalco Inds down by 1.56%, L&T down by 1.26%, ITC down by 1.15% and SBI down by 1.09%.

Meanwhile, dismissing apprehensions of the Indian diaspora on the state of the economy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asserted that there was no need to worry about the future growth of Indian economy as the country was heading towards better times. Manmohan Singh urged people to remain engaged in the future of this country with confidence despite the concerns about the social challenges, better governance and future of the Indian economy. Highlighting the perceptions outside India that the country is losing its growth momentum in the past decade, which is amplified by the political uncertainty on account of coming general election, he clarified that despite a number of weak external and domestic factors, Indian economic fundamentals are strong.

Prime Minister dismissed perceptions that Indian economy was struggling with slowdown in past decade saying that economy has done well over the past decade with averaged healthy growth rate of 7.9 percent per annum. India’s savings and investment rates are still over 30 percent of GDP and business sentiments in India is escalating. Referring to the decade low growth of 5 percent in previous fiscal, Manmohan Singh pointed out that a number of international as well as domestic factors have contributed to low growth in FY13. Prime Minister expects that domestic economy is likely to grow at 5 percent in the current fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,164.45 down by 10.15 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 6,188.05 and 6,154.10. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were SSLT up by 4.49%, BPCL up by 2.66%, NTPC up by 1.97%, Dr Reddy,s Lab up by 1.81% and Jindal Steel up by 1.80%. On the flip side, JP Associates down by 2.65%, Axis Bank down by 2.10%, ACC down by 2.04%, Hindalco down by 1.65% and Grasim down by 1.47% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Shanghai Composite down by 0.08%, Nikkei 225 down by 1.54%, Hang Seng down by 0.32%, Taiwan Weighted down by 0.48%, Straits Times down by 0.02% and Seoul Composite down by 0.66%. While, KLSE Composite up by 0.07%  and Jakarta Composite up by 0.30%.