Benchmarks add losses; Metal, Realty drag

Indian equities extended losses to continue weak trade in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline counters and taking cues from global counterparts. The sentiments were on pessimistic note from early trades on Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) survey, which reported that India’s economy is likely to grow in the range of 4.5 to 5% during the second half of the current fiscal year. The street also took note of the annual economic growth for last fiscal which has been revised to 4.5% from 5% earlier and against a growth of 6.7% in the year 2011-12. Traders were seen piling positions in HealthCare and Consumer Durables stocks while selling was witnessed in Metal, Realty and TECK sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Oberoi Realty was trading in red after it posted dismal December quarter results. Its third quarter consolidated net profit halved to Rs 68 crore from Rs 134.5 crore year-on-year, dented by lower revenues. Petronet LNG was trading in green as the company plans to lease out one of the two storage tanks at its newly commissioned Kochi LNG import terminal to make the under-utilized facility commercially viable.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in red, while the European markets were too trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 6,050 and 20,400 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1073:1272 while 114 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20308.95, down by 204.90 points or 1.00% after trading in a range of 20480.35 and 20292.42. There were just 8 stocks advancing against 22 decliners on the index.

The broader indices were too trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.25% while the Small cap index was down 0.13%.

BSE HealthCare up by 0.96% and Consumer Durables up 0.21% were the only gaining sectoral index on the BSE, on the other hand, Metal down by 2.12%, Realty down by 1.46%, TECK down by 1.22%, IT down by 1.21% and Bankex down by 1.08% were the top losing indices on BSE.   

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 2.52%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.94%, Sun Pharma up by 1.16%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.05% and Axis Bank up by 0.75%. On the flip side, Hindalco Industries down by 3.79%, Tata Motors down by 3.16%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.90%, Tata Steel down by 2.63% and ICICI Bank was down by 2.52%.

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 6,031.80, down by 57.70 points or 0.95% after trading in a range of 6,074.85 and 6,024.25. There were 14 stocks advancing against 36 declining ones on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were GAIL up by 2.68%, Lupin up by 2.25%, Dr Reddy’s Lab up by 1.78%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.19% and Sun Pharma up by 1.07%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 3.88%, JP Associates down by 3.85%, Tata Motors down by 3.12%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.83% and Jindal Steel down by 2.80% were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices continue to trade in red, Jakarta Composite down by 0.57%, Nikkei 225 plunged by 1.98%, Straits Times declined by 1.12% and Seoul Composite down by 1.09%. Markets in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia were closed for trading on account of holiday. 

The European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC 40 was down 0.13%, Germany’s DAX lost 0.08% and UK’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.36%.