Benchmarks pare gains; trade continues in red

Indian equities pared gains to continue trade in red in the late morning session. While on the global front, the majority of Asian markets were trading in green, after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao hinted for some stimulus by saying that easing inflation is allowing room to adjust monetary policy. Back home, traders were seen piling up position in, Auto, CG and Realty sector, while selling was witnessed in Metal, FMCG and IT sector. In the scrip specific development, IDFC jumped on reporting 21% rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 379.78 crore for the quarter, as compared to Rs 313.69 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Tulip Telecom gained on reporting 48% surge in Q1 net profit. MMTC surged on reporting 86% rise in Q1 net profit. The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 5350 and 17600 levels respectively.

The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1062:896 while 107 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17694.17 up down 34.03 points or 0.19% after touching a high of 17763.59 and low of 17678.82. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading on a positive note; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.28%, while Small cap index was up by 0.22%.

On the BSE sectoral space, Auto up by 1.01%, CG up by 0.60%, Realty up by 0.51%, HC up by 0.27% and Power up by 0.18% were the gainers while Metal down by 1.25%, FMCG down by 1.24%, IT down by 0.44%, TECk down by 0.28% and CD down by 0.23% were the losers on the index.

Hero MotoCorp up by 3.03%, Tata Motors up by 1.51%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.38%, Cipla up by 1.15%, L&T up by 1.01% were the major gainers on the Sensex, while ITC down by 1.85%, Sterlite Industries down by 1.51%, Wipro down by 1.39%, Hindalco Industries down by 1.37% and Jindal Steel down by 1.29% were the major losers on the index.

Meanwhile, despite the hike in import duty on certain alloy products, Indian steel imports scaled up by 20% at 5.69 lakh tonne in July. The growth in consumption is the major driver of increased imports. The consumption stood at 7.7% in the first four months of the current fiscal and domestic production soared up by 3.3%.

The alloy steel imports had increased by 32% at 6.01 lakh tonne. As per the latest provisional data from the Joint Plant Committee under the Ministry of Steel, the import of non-alloy or carbon steel products had surged by 37.3% to 1.96 million tonne for the period.

In 2011-12, steel consumption had increased at 6 per cent. For the ongoing fiscal, large steel manufacturers like SAIL and Tata Steel expect domestic consumption to increase between 8-9%. 

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,373.55, down by 6.80 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 5,390.65 and 5,367.85. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were IDFC up by 3.88%, Hero Moto Co up by 3.03%, Ranbaxy up by 1.42%, Tata Motors by 1.36% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.12%. While, Sterlite Industries down by 2.13%, ITC by 2.02%, Asian Paint down by 1.77%, Jindal Steel down by 1.59% and Wipro down by 1.55% were the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian indices were trading in green ; Nikkei 225 up 1.56%, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.32%, Hang Seng index up by 0.17%, Straits Times up by 0.48% and Jakarta Composite up by 0.09% while Shanghai Composite down by 0.08%, Kospi Composite Index down 0.15% and KLSE Composite down by 0.26% were the only losers.