IN THE RED

Local equity markets have reversed all their gains and have slipped into the red at this point of time in the absence of any positive cues. The regional counterparts were trading mixed at this point of time, and the US index futures too were trading mostly in the red. Back home, while consumer durables, FMCG, capital goods and IT stocks garnered the interest of the investors, stocks from the oil & gas, PSU, realty, auto and banking sectors were at the receiving end. Broader markets are a mixed bag; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.06%, while the Small cap index gained 0.09%. The market breadth on the BSE was in favour of advances in a ratio of 1069:982 while 82 scrips remained unchanged. Meanwhile, markets are awaiting India's largest public sector bank -- SBI's Q4 results for further direction.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,320.43, down by 24.60 points or 0.13%. The index has touched a high and low of 18,435.80 and 18,311.33 respectively. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 declining stocks on the index.

The BSE Mid cap index lost 0.06%, while the Small cap index gained 0.09%.

The top gainers on BSE sectoral space were Consumer Durables (CD) up 1.11%, FMCG up 0.89%, Capital Goods (CG) up 0.59%, IT up 0.58% and TECk up 0.47%.

On the other hand, Oil & Gas down 1.95%, PSU down 1.08%, Realty down 0.63%, Auto down 0.48% and Bankex down 0.29% were the major losers on the BSE sectoral space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Jindal Steel up 1.24%, TCS up 1.21%, ITC up 1.16%, L&T up 1.12% and HUL up 0.97%.

On the flip side, ONGC down 5.70%, Hero Honda down 2.57%, NTPC down 1.61%, RIL down 1.10% and Maruti Suzuki down 0.97% were the major losers on the index.

Meanwhile, India's natural rubber imports plunged 92% to 843 tonne in April compared with 10,876 tonne imported in the same period last year, according to the Rubber Board data. This sharp decline is being attributed to high global prices as the price gap between the global and the domestic price was Rs 30-50 per kg, hence the natural rubber consuming industries preferred to source the raw material from the local market.

Although India is fourth largest producer of the raw material in rubber, tyre makers still have to depend on imports as domestic production is not enough for rapidly growing tyre industry. Nonetheless, the import of natural rubber is expected to improve as global prices start cooling down. Also, the high demand from the tyre and non-tyre industry will also encourage higher imports in the coming months.

Meanwhile, in view of the fact that new capacities and major expansion plans undertaken by tyre companies to cater to booming automobile industry will lead to an increase in consumption by 150,000 tonne, in this fiscal; the Union government has been urged by the natural rubber consuming industries to allow duty free import of 200,000 tonne of rubber on Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) basis and 5,000 tonne of latex in this financial year in order to bridge the gap between domestic supply and demand.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5490.80, down by 8.20 points or 0.15%. The index has touched a high and low of 5523.85 and 5486.25 respectively. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sun Pharma up 1.26%, Sesa Goa up 1.26%, Jindal Steel up 1.26%, TCS up 1.09% and HCL Tech up 1.07%.

On the flip side, ONGC down 5.35%, Ambuja Cement down 3.27%, Ranbaxy down 2.85%, Hero Honda down 2.58% and Gail down 2.30% were the major losers on the index.

Other key Asian markets were trading mixed; Hang Seng dipped 0.11%, Nikkei 225 dropped 0.14% and Seoul Composite decreased 0.04%; while Shanghai Composite increased 0.61%, and Taiwan Weighted added 0.07%.

Stock markets in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore remained shut today for a public holiday.