Benchmarks shave off all the early gains; trade flat with positive bias

Erasing all the early gains, Indian equity markets are trading flat with positive bias after bout of selling pressure dragged the benchmarks from day’s high point. Despite intense profit-booking, barometer gauges, Sensex and Nifty, are holding their heads above the crucial 21,200 and 6,300 levels respectively. Meanwhile, broader indices too paring early gains are trading with gains in the range of 0.20%-0.35%.

Positive momentum of local bourses could be attributed to positive Asian counters, which sprang higher on Tuesday as Japanese stocks rebounded and Chinese money rates eased, while the U.S. dollar got a fillip from a report the Federal Reserve would again trim its bond buying next week.

Back home, hefty profit-booking in stocks from Information Technology, Oil & Gas and Power stocks which counterbalanced the gains in stocks belonging from were Auto, Bankex and Capital Goods counters, washed away most of the bourses’ gains. Meanwhile, select retail stocks such as Shoppers Stop, Future Retail and Provogue (India) gained traction after commerce minister highlighted that he would seek legal opinion on whether a state can opt out of FDI multi-brand retail policy. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1186:1062; while 150 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading flat at 21206.08, marginally up by 1.03 points, after trading in a range of 21,302.52 and 21189.20. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices too pared most of their gains; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.37%, while Small cap index up by 0.18%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.36%, Bankex up by 1.02%, Capital Goods up by 0.68%, Consumer Durables up by 0.52% and Realty up by 0.33%. While, IT down by 0.82%, Teck down by 0.78%, Oil and Gas down by 0.57%, Power down by 0.51% and FMCG down by 0.37% were the top losing indices on BSE.  

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.88%, ICICI Bank up by 2.13%, Tata Steel up by 1.49%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.40%, and SSLT up by 1.22%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 2.11%, TCS down by 2.11%, BHEL down by 1.79%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.39% and NTPC down by 1.29%.

Meanwhile, Upset over Delhi government's recent decision to withdraw the approval given by the previous Sheila Dikshit--led government for FDI in multi-brand retail, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma underscored that states were only given option to join the FDI multi-brand retail policy and it is not 'a revolving door'.

However, commerce minister highlighted that he would seek legal opinion on whether a state can opt out of the policy. Further, the minister also pointed that such political inability would confuse domestic as well as foreign investors.

The central government allowed 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retailing in September 2012 and left its implementation to the states. Post to that, as many as 12 states, mostly Congress-led, including Delhi and Rajasthan, agreed to allow global retailers to open supermarket chains. However, recently, Delhi’s new government decided to withdraw the approval given to FDI by the previous government in multi-brand retail in Delhi, citing that small store owners would stand to lose business with this move, which would also add to widespread unemployment.

Notably, it is due to this prevailing political uncertainty, FDI in multi-brand retail has not evoked the expected response from global retailers, with only one proposal from UK-based Tesco so far being approved by the central government.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading were trading flat at 6,304.30, after trading in a range of 6,330.30 and 6,297.90. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.89%, Ranbaxy and Bank of Baroda were up by 2.20%, ICICI Bank up by 2.12% and JP Associates up by 1.73%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 3.52%, BHEL down by 2.10%, TCS down by 2.06%, Coal India down by 1.97% and Kotak Bank down by 1.92% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in green; Seoul Composite up by 0. 55%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.36%, Shanghai Composite up by 0.67%, KLSE Composite up by 0.42%, Nikkei 225 up by 1.02%, Straits Times up by 0.30% and Hang Seng up by 0.64%. While, Taiwan Weighted down by 0.25%.