Sensex, Nifty marginally up amid listless trade

Indian equity markets continued its flat journey for the fourth consecutive session and currently trading positive on lack of triggers. Investors were trading cautiously ahead of important events like European Central Bank's decision, quarterly earnings in next week and inflation data. In currency markets rupee continued its southbound journey against dollar on the back of increased demand for the American currency. On sectoral front FMCG, capital goods, healthcare and power stocks were trading higher with notable gains. Consumer durables stocks were finding modest support. Oil, automobile, bank and metal stocks were mostly trading flat. On the global front, overnight flat close in European markets and a holiday in the US markets on account of Independence Day rendered the mood of cautious in the Asian region this morning. Back home, the market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1,621 shares on the gaining side against 825 shares on the losing side while 98 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,473.85 up by 11.04 points or 0.06% after trading as high as 17,496.38 and as low as 17,423.45. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a positive note; the BSE Mid cap index advanced 0.73% while Small cap index climbed 1.16%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, FMCG up by 0.74%, HC up by 0.60%, CG up by 0.58%, Power up by 0.43% and CD up by 0.29%. While, Realty down by 0.36%, IT down by 0.26%, TECk down by 0.22%, PSU down by 0.16% and Metal down by 0.14% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 1.96%, BHEL up by 1.14%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.02%, ITC up by 0.91% and Tata Power up by 0.72%.

On the flip side, Bajaj Auto was down by 1.99%, ONGC was down by 1.12%, Dr Reddys Lab was down by 0.78%, NTPC was down by 0.75% and Bharti Airtel was down by 0.55% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, India’s coffee exports have tumbled 9.57 percent to 1.04 lakh tonnes in the first quarter of this fiscal as compared to 1.15 lakh tonnes of the brew shipped in the same quarter of previous fiscal. However, in terms of value, the exports declined marginally to Rs 1,560.76 crore in the first quarter of 2012-13 fiscal as compared to Rs 1,580.03 crore in the year-ago period.

Moreover, in the January-June period of the current calendar year, coffee shipments fell by 3.76 percent to 2.05 lakh tonnes from 2.13 lakh tonnes in the same period previous year. The exports of coffee have declined as farmers are holding their crop due to low global prices of arabica and lethargic demand from Europe following the economic slowdown.

Further, in the first nine months of the current coffee year (October-September), the exports fell by 5.40 percent to 2.63 lakh tonnes from 2.78 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period of 2010-11 marketing year.

Moreover, the world coffee consignments have fell from the beginning of the current season on the back of low opening stocks on account of record shipments in the 2010-11 coffee year and fall in production in the current crop year. The coffee year runs from October to September.

Earlier this year, the Coffee board has implemented various programmes and schemes to boost production, productivity and quality as well as for promotion of exports and value addition in the coffee sector. The various schemes being implemented by the board were Research & Development programmes for Sustainable Coffee Production; Development Support Scheme for Coffee; Rainfall Insurance Scheme for Risk Management to Coffee growers; Support for Mechanization of Farm Operations and Export Promotion scheme.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,305.45, up by 2.90 points or 0.05% after trading as high as 5,310.45 and as low as 5,288.85. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Cipla up by 1.90%, IDFC up by 1.48%, HCL Tech up by 1.26%, BHEL up by 1.22% and Hindustan Unilever up by 1.14%.

On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 1.99%, Asian Paint down by 1.43%, ONGC down by 1.35%, DLF down by 1.20% and JP Associates down by 0.97%, were the major losers on the index.

In the Asian space, Jakarta Composite down 0.20%, KLSE Composite down 0.32%, Nikkei 225 down 0.26%, Straits Times Index up 0.33%, KOSPI Composite Index down 0.01%, Taiwan Weighted down  0.47%, Shanghai Composite down 1.30% and Hang Seng up 0.27%.