Local equity markets languish near day’s low; Nifty trades below 6,050 level

Indian equity markets after reversing gains in late morning deals were languishing near day’s low point on Thursday on account of sustained selling pressure. No respite seems to be coming to equity markets tailing somber regional counterparts. Both Sensex and Nifty, trading with loss of close to 3/4 of a percent, were languishing below the crucial 20,350 and 6,050 levels respectively. Meanwhile, broader indices magnifying losses, too were trading with cut of around half a percent.

On the global front, Asian shares stepped back from three-week highs on Thursday, snapping a five-session winning streak that was underpinned by receding concerns about global growth prospects and reassurance over US monetary policy.

Closer home, benchmarks got off to decent start after retail inflation came much below the street’s expectation at 24 months low of 8.79% for the month of January, providing some relief to the ruling Congress party ahead of national polls. Nevertheless, benchmarks started paring gains after investors came in terms with fact of escalating core CPI, which rose to 8.11% from 8.08% in the previous month, fuelling concerns about RBI yet again hiking rates in policy review on April 1, 2014.

Sectorally, while Realty and Auto counters managed to show some resilience, rest all indices were down and out in red. Prominent losers among them were stocks from PSU, banking and Consumer Durable counters. On the flip side, sugar stocks were trading sweet after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) finally approved a subsidy of Rs 3,333 per tonne for exports of raw sugar. The overall market breadth on BSE is in the favour of declines which have thumped advances in the ratio of 1340:791; while 111 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20304.61, down by 143.38 points or 0.70% after trading in a range of 20503.86 and 20289.05. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 declines on the index.

The broader indices lost some more ground; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.40% and Small cap index lost 0.58%.

While, most of the sectoral indices had dipped their heads in red, only Realty and Auto were up by 0.36% and 0.21% respectively, on the flip side, PSU down by 1.64%, Bankex down by 1.33%, Consumer Durables down by 1.16% and Oil & Gas down by 0.91%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SSLT up by 1.28%, Tata Motors up by 1.26%, Sun Pharma up by 0.88%, M&M up by 0.57% and TCS up by 0.48%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 6.17%, Coal India down by 3.20%, BHEL was down by 2.19%, ONGC down by 2.14% and HDFC down by 2.00% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, India Inc has given thumbs up to Interim Rail Budget 2014, wherein no populist measures were announced. Appreciating government's focus on modernization and expansion of the country's vast rail network without touching passenger fares and freight rates, India Inc termed ‘Railway Budget 2014’ - a step in the right direction.

It noted that government’s focus was rightly attracting huge investments to upgrade, modernizing and expanding railways as per aspirations of people and attempting to bring in foreign direct investment (FDI). It further stated that increasing private participation, as rightly noticed by the government, seems to be the way of future development.

In the interim budget for four months in the Lok Sabha, Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge announced to set up an independent Rail Tariff Authority to rationalize fares. He also highlighted that there was a proposal to expand dynamic pricing of tickets in line with the airline industry.

Further, the minister announced the launch of 17 new premium trains, 39 express trains and ten passenger trains in the coming year and providing rail connectivity to Katra and Vaishnodevi in Jammu and Kashmir, and Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh in the Northeast.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,035.35, down by 48.65 points or 0.80% after trading in a range of 6,094.40 and 6,031.45. There were 11 stocks advancing against 39 decliners on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were SSLT up by 1.33%, DLF up by 1.28%, Tata Motors up by 1.17%, Ranbaxy up by 1.09% and Sun Pharma up by 0.92%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 6.24%, Bank of Baroda down by 4.66%, Coal India down by 3.30%, IDFC down by 3.07% and Jindal Steel & Power down by 2.77% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Hang Seng dropped 57.35 points or 0.26% to 22,228.44, Jakarta Composite lost 2.32 points or 0.05% to 4,493.96, KLSE Composite dropped 5.21 points or 0.29% to 1,820.43, Nikkei 225 declined by 184.77 points or 1.25% to 14,615.29, Seoul Composite shed 1.51 points or 0.08% to 1,934.33 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 18.78 points or 0.22% to 8,492.09.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was up marginally by 1.63 points or 0.08% to 2,111.59 and Straits Times was up by 9.45 points or 0.31% to 3,044.90.