Benchmarks remain lackadaisical despite August IIP coming above expectation

Indian equities continued lackadaisical trade below neutral line in the late morning session. On the global front, Asian counters were trading mixed at this point of time. Though, some of the indices were maintaining their gains on good data from US and as a day after Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda warned that without negotiations Asia’s two biggest economies would suffer. China and Japan agreed to hold talks over a territorial dispute that has disrupted trade. Back home, India's annual industrial output growth measured by index of industrial production (IIP) surprised the street, by registering growth of 2.7% at 165.7 for the month of August 2012 against the growth figure of 0.1% in the previous month, which later was revised negatively to 0.2%. The cumulative growth for the period April-August 2012-13 over the corresponding period of the previous year stands at 0.4%.The indices of Industrial Production for the Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity sectors for the month of August 2012 stand at 117.3, 176.6 and 152.2 respectively, with the corresponding growth rates of  2.0%, 2.9% and 1.9% as compared to August 2011. Traders were seen piling up position in, Metal, Realty and FMCG sector while selling was witnessed in IT, TECk and CG sector. Unitech, HDIL, Oberoi Realty, Indiabulls Real Estate and from Realty pack were seen trading in green edging the markets higher. Coal India, Jindal Steel, Hindalco Industries, Sterlite Industries, JSW Steel and NMDC from Metal pack were seen trading firm in green. IT majors - Infosys, Wipro and CORE Education & Technologies were capping the markets’ gains.

In the scrip specific development, Gruh Finance rose on reporting 30% rise in Q2 net profit. Videocon Industries jumped as its arm discovered hydrocarbons in Sergipe-Alagoas Basin. Apollo Tyres gained on plans to acquire majority stake in US based Cooper Tire.  Electrosteel Steels soared on commencing trail production.  BPCL gained as its arm encountered encouraging result in Alagoas Basin, Brasil. The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were managing to hold their psychological 5,700 and 18700 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, in the ratio of 1262:752.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18756.92 down by 47.83 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 18763.10 and 18696.10. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap index were up by 0.71% each.

On the BSE sectoral space, Metal up by 1.53%, Realty up by 0.49%, FMCG up by 0.24%, CD up by 0.10% and Bankex up by 0.08%, were the top gainers. While, IT down by 3.30%, TECk down by 2.47% and CG down by 0.08% were the top losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Gail India up by 1.36%, Tata Power up by 1.18%, Hindalco Industries up by 1.02%, Sterlite Industries up by 0.98% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.93%. On the other hand, Infosys down by 6.66%, Wipro down by 1.70%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.58%, TCS down by 0.52% and Sun Pharma down by 0.51 % was only the loser on the Sensex.  

Meanwhile, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has said that India is aiming to get back on higher growth trajectory of 8 percent as it would help in generating more jobs and promoting inclusive growth.

'We are trying to get back to 8 percent growth and that is good for the world. In my view the central focus should be on getting growth back.' Earlier he had said that there are many things currently that are being talked about and need to be done quickly. If we want to get growth back to 9%, the agenda is very large.

Speaking on the sidelines of IMF-World Bank annual meetings, Ahluwalia said that focusing on growth does not necessarily mean ignoring job creation. 'I don't think that getting growth back would ignore jobs nor do I think that the growth that we were having was all that anti-jobs'. From the point of view of India, he said, the aim would be to get back to the kind of growth which was possible as exports would remain subdued for several years.

Planning Commission Deputy Chief further pointed out that probably the country will run somewhat bigger current account deficit, so key macro challenge is to get enough money ploughing into the country as FDI, FII etc. 

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,702.05, down by 6.00 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 5,703.45 and 5,659.35. There were 34 stocks advancing against 15 declines while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Ambuja Cement up by 3.01%, Lupin up by 2.38%, ACC up by 2.26%, PNB up by 1.47% and BPCL was up by 1.30%. While, Infosys down by 5.77%, Wipro down by 1.47%, DLF down by 0.97%,  Bharti Airtel down by 0.69% and IDFC  down by 0.55% were the losers on the index

Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Kospi Composite was down by 0.01%, Nikkei 225 was down by 0.14%, Shanghai Composite was down by 0.25%, Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.32% while Hang Seng was up by 0.52%, Straits Times was up by 0.47%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.52% and KLSE Composite was up by 0.11% were the gainers.