Benchmarks trade slightly lower ahead of IIP and CPI data

Indian equity benchmarks are trading slightly in the red in early deals on Wednesday, as investors remained on the sidelines ahead of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data for January and Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for the month of February scheduled to be released later today. Sentiments also remained dampened as traders remained concerned with India’s merchandise exports falling for the first time in eight months and set to miss its export target for the fiscal with exports moving into the negative zone in February 2014.

Global cues too remained subdued with the US markets ending lower, as some traders cashed in on the recent strength in the markets and shrugged off the release of a report from the Commerce Department showing that wholesale inventories rose by more than expected in the month of January. All the Asian equity markets were trading in negative terrain at this point of time, led by the Japanese index which is down by over two percent amid concern that China’s economy may be faltering.

Back home, on the sectoral front healthcare, consumer durables and fast moving consumer goods witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while banking, capital goods and oil and gas remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices, however, were outperforming benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 776 shares on the gaining side against 806 shares on the losing side while 71 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 21793.32; about 33 points lower compared to its previous closing of 21826.42, and touched a high and a low of 21859.72 and 21768.14 respectively. The index is currently trading at 21787.26, down by 39.16 points or 0.18%. There were 12 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a weak start with 46.99% stocks advancing against 48.93% declines. The broader indices too were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index up was by 0.09% and Small cap gained 0.07%. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Healthcare up by 1.34%, Consumer Durables up by 0.91%, FMCG up by 0.85%, Teck up by 0.44% and IT up by 0.39%, while PSU down by 1.17%, Bankex down by 1.16%, Capital Goods down by 1.03%, Oil & Gas down by 0.61% and Power down by 0.55% were the top losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 3.07%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.34%, Dr Reddys Lab up by 1.33%, ITC up by 1.18% and Wipro up by 1.17%. On the flip side, BHEL was down by 1.93%, Maruti Suzuki was down by 1.67%, Axis Bank was down by 1.65%, L&T was down by 1.60% and SBI was down by 1.53% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, India's trade deficit recorded its steepest fall since September 2013 in the month of February to $8.13 billion from $14.12 billion in the year ago period and $9.92 in January, led by sharp decline in imports, especially oil and non-oil imports. Signaling that government's efforts at containing deficit had started reaping benefits, country’s import slid by a steep 17% on Year-on-Year (Y-o-Y) basis. While oil imports were down to $13.7 billion from $14.13 billion in February 2013, non-oil imports too showed a decline of 24.5% to $20.12 billion from $26.65 billion (Y-o-Y) basis.

However, in a jolt to the economy, exports declined once again after a span of seven months. Exports came down by 3.67% at $25.68 billion in February compared to $26.66 billion in the same month last year, thereby casting doubts over chances of achieving export target of $325 billion for the present fiscal.

According to data released by the ministry of commerce and industry, cumulative value of exports for the period April-February 2013 -14 grew by 4.79% at $282.78 billion as against $269.86 billion. On the flip side, cumulatively imports during that period slid by 8.65% at $449.79 billion as against $410.86 billion in the same period last year. Consequently, trade deficit for Apr-Feb period narrowed down to $128.08 billion from $179.93 billion (Y-o-Y), thereby making government's current account deficit target of sub $50 billion by March 2014 more achievable.

The CNX Nifty opened at 6,497.50; about 14 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 6,511.90, and has touched a high and a low of 6,516.90 and 6,487.30 respectively. The index is currently trading at 6,493.30, up by 18.60 points or 0.29%. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 3.00%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.42%, ITC up by 1.18%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories up by 1.10% and TCS up by 0.99%. On the flip side, Bank of Baroda down by 2.90%, IndusInd Bank down by 2.82%, IDFC down by 2.60%, PNB down by 2.50% and BHEL down by 2.09% were the top losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined 12.04 points or 0.60% to 1,989.12, Hang Seng slipped by 353.33 points or 1.59% to 21,916.28, Jakarta Composite dipped 15.56 points or 0.33% to 4,688.66, KLSE Composite contracted by 9.93 points or 0.54% to 1,818.62, Nikkei 225 tumbled 330.99 points or 2.17% to 14,893.1, Straits Times dropped by 18.72 points or 0.60% to 3,110.68, KOSPI Composite decreased 25.47 points or 1.30% to 1,938.40 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 37.79 points or 0.43% to 8,664.54.