Benchmarks continue to trade in narrow range with negative bias

Benchmarks were trading in narrow range with negative bias weighed down by telecom shares such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Comm and Idea were down 1.5-2% each on worries that aggressive bidding for the 900-MHz bandwidth with the entry of Reliance Jio would lead to higher costs for retaining the spectrum. Sentiments also remained down-beat on report that fiscal deficit in the first three quarters of the current fiscal year ending March touched 95.2% of the budgeted target for the whole year at Rs 5.16 lakh crore as compared with 78.8% a year ago. Market participants also remained on the sidelines ahead of the release of HSBC India Manufacturing PMI data scheduled to be announced later in the day. Some pessimism came in after CII survey showed that India’s economy is likely to grow in the range of 4.5 to 5% during the second half of the current fiscal. The market sentiment also affected adversely by data showing that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 652.97 crore on January 31, 2014, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges

On the global front, Asian markets too were trading lower at this point of time, led by sharp fall in Japanese markets, with investors indulging in heavy selling almost across the board on weak global cues and a stronger yen. Slump in Chinese factory growth too hurt investors’ confidence. Back home, traders were buying, Consumer Durables and Healthcare while, selling was seen in Metal, Realty and Oil & Gas on the BSE.

The market breadth on BSE remains positive with advances to declines in the ratio of 931: 788. BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were comfortably trading near their psychological 20,400 and 6,050 levels respectively.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20432.17 down by 81.68 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 20480.35 and 20391.96. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.05% and Small cap index gained 0.30%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durables up by 1.46% and Healthcare up by 1.25% while, Metal down by 1.65%, Realty down by 0.81%, Oil & Gas down by 0.54%, Auto down by 0.51% and Teck down by 0.51% were the top losers on the sectoral index. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.85%, Sun Pharma up by 1.46%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.43%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.13% and Cipla up by 1.06%. On the flip side, Hindalco Industries was down by 2.69%, Bharti Airtel was down by 2.19%, Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 2.07%, Tata Motors was down by 1.70%, and Tata Steel was down by 1.63% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the inflation based on consumer price index for industrial workers (CPI-IW) in the month of December eased to 9.13 percent on y-o-y basis as compared to 11.47 percent in November and 11.17 in the corresponding month in 2012 on the back of softening of prices of food items.

The food inflation stood at 11.49 percent in December against 16.17 percent in previous month and 13.53 percent during the corresponding month of 2012. Among food items, low prices of sugar, onion, ginger, brinjal, cauliflower, peas and other vegetable items are responsible for the decrease in the index. However, high prices of some food items including fish, eggs, poultry, milk, pure ghee and garlic imparted some stickiness to food inflation.

All India CPI-IW for December 2013 declined by four points and pegged at 239 points from 235 points in November. At the centre level, Giridih recorded maximum decline of 12 points followed by Ahmedabad, Chhindwara, Varanasi, Munger, Jamalpur, Nagpur and Bhavnagar (10 points each), Jamshedpur (9 points) and Rourkela, Ludhiana, Tripura and Angul Talchar (8 points each). On the contrary, Sholapur and Puducherry centres recorded increase of 4 points and 2 points respectively, while  the index remained stationary in 37 centres.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,066.55 down by 22.95 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 6,074.85 and 6,052.20. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 stock declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Lupin up by 2.00%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories up by 1.78%, Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries up by 1.49%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.47% and Ultra Cement up by 1.37%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 2.80%, Hindalco down by 2.65%, M&M down by 2.22%, Bharti Airtel  down by 2.17% and Tata Motors down by 1.86% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in red; Jakarta Composite dropped 25.89 points or 0.59% to 4,392.87, Nikkei 225 declined 186.11 points or 1.25% to 14,728.42, Straits Times decreased 30.97 points or 1.02% to 2,996.25 and Seoul Composite was down by 21.53 points or 1.11% to 1,919.62.