Benchmarks trade slightly in red in early deals

Snapping five days of winning streak, Indian equity benchmarks have made a negative start and are trading slightly in the red in early deals on Monday, tracking weak Asian cues along with auto and capital goods shares leading the fall. Sentiments also remained dampened after India’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the third Quarter (October-December) of 2013-14 recorded sub 5% growth for the fifth consecutive quarter, as it came in a shade lower than expectation at 4.7% at Rs 14.8 lakh crore as against  Rs 14.1 lakh crore in the same quarter a  year ago. Market participants also remained concerned about a survey by industry body CII and ASCON findings that industrial activity in the October-December 2013 quarter remained subdued and grim, treading along the growth path of the previous quarter.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in the red at this point of time led by the Japanese market that is lower by around two percent in early deals, as investors reacted to a Russian decision to send troops into Ukraine. The US markets ended mostly in green in last session, even as the economic news remained mixed amid concerns of tension between Russia and Ukraine.

Back home, on the sectoral front, technology, software and realty witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while capital goods, auto and consumer durables remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices, however, were outperforming benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 895 shares on the gaining side against 651 shares on the losing side while 79 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 21079.27; about 40 points lower compared to its previous closing of 21120.12, and touched a high and a low of 21120.60 and 21029.99 respectively.  The index is currently trading at 21118.73, down by 1.39 points or 0.01%. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 55.79% stocks advancing against 39.70% declines. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.53% and Small cap index was up by 0.38%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Teck up by 0.38%, IT up by 0.31%, Realty up by 0.30%, Metal up by 0.25% and FMCG up by 0.11%, while Capital Goods down by 0.80%, Auto down by 0.57%, Consumer Durables down by 0.39%, Oil & Gas down by 0.20% and PSU down by 0.19% were the top losers on the sectoral index. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 1.35%, SBI up by 0.95%, Hindalco up by 0.90%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.75% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.73%. On the flip side, ONGC was down by 1.47%, SSLT was down by 1.46%,  L&T was down by 1.43%, Dr Reddys Lab was down by 1.36% and Tata Motors was down by 1.33% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Putting India’s finance minister in a tight spot in the election year, India's fiscal deficit in the first ten months of the 2013/14 financial year crossed the target for the whole year as it touched Rs 5.33 lakh crore during April-January, or 101.6 percent of the full year target, compared with 89.4 percent at the same point a year ago.

In the first ten months of the current fiscal year to March 2014, Net tax receipts stood at Rs 5.76 lakh crore, while total expenditure shot up at Rs 12.7 lakh crore. However, with much of tax collection happening in the last two month of the financial year, revenues are expected to beef up. This accompanied with some aggressive cuts in expenditure by Finance Minister P Chidambaram would ensure India achieves its fiscal deficit target in the election year.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, in his interim budget on February 17 speech, revising an earlier target of 4.8 percent, outlined that fiscal deficit would not cross 4.6 percent of GDP. However, this figure was simply seen as government’s clever method of maths, which included carrying forward liabilities from this fiscal to the next, denting the defence expenditure, and silently merging government's welfare schemes and not disclosing the fate of the allocation made to the merged schemes.

The CNX Nifty opened at 6,264.35; about 12 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 6,276.95, and has touched a high and a low of 6,267.95 and 6,249.60 respectively. The index is currently trading at 6,267.10, down by 9.85 points or 0.16%. There were 24 stocks advancing against 25 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Grasim up by 1.36%, Bank of Baroda up by 1.34%, Tata Steel up by 1.22%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.10% and Ranbaxy up by 0.93%. On the flip side, JP Associate down by 3.58%, HCL Tech down by 2.22%, L&T down by 1.61%, SSLT down by 1.58% and ONGC down by 1.32% were the major losers on the index.

most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Jakarta Composite dropped by 35.82 points or 0.78% to 4,584.40, KLSE Composite declined 11.75 points or 0.64% to 1,823.91, Hang Seng tumbled 158.92 points or 0.70% to 22,678.04, Nikkei 225 slipped by 275.74 points or 1.86% to 14,565.33, Straits Times declined 25.61 points or 0.82% to 3,085.17, Taiwan Weighted crumbled 56.57 points or 0.65% to 8,583.01 and Seoul Composite was down by 16.71 points or 0.84% to 1,963.28.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was up by 16.46 points or 0.80% to 2,072.76.