Local benchmarks continue to trade choppy on the back of disappointing results delivered by SBI coupled with fears of another fuel price and rate hike making investors' sentiment dampen. SBI was trading near the lowest point of the day with more than seven and a half percent cut in its share price. The bank 's net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2011 has plunged by 98.88% at Rs 20.88 crore whereas the same was at Rs 1866.60 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2010. Its total income for the quarter under review has increased by 18.07% at Rs 26536.84 crore. Meanwhile, the markets across the globe too are trading on a disappointing note as Asia markets are exhibiting mixed trends while the European counterparts have got off to a subdued opening on the back of renewed apprehensions as euro-zone sovereign debt troubles are still lingering over them. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 5,500 and 18,200 levels, respectively. The Sensex outperformed the Midcap and the Small-cap indices on the downside. The market breadth on the BSE was in favor of declines in the ratio of 886:1801 while 114 scrips remained unchanged.
The BSE Sensex drifted down 220.94 points or 1.20% at 18,124.09. The index touched a high and a low of 18,435.80 and 18,084.67 respectively.
The BSE Mid-cap index down 0.94% and Small-cap index fell by 0.88%.
On the BSE sectoral front, Consumer Durable up 0.94%, FMCG up 0.82%, IT up 0.20% and Teck up 0.03% were the only gainers.
While, Oil & Gas down 3.12%, Bankex down 2.36%, PSU down 2.16%, Auto down 1.34% and Realty down 1.13% were laggards in the BSE sectoral space.
The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up 1.56%, TCS up 1.08%, HUL up 0.81%, Jindal Steel up 0.76% and Cipla up 0.43%.
On the flip side SBI down 7.67%, ONGC down 6.13%, Hero Honda down 3.32%, JP Associates down 2.95% and RIL down 2.64% were losers on the BSE index.
Meanwhile, BT Cotton seed companies are eyeing an income of Rs 700 crore this year due to an increase in seed prices. The month-long tussle between BT Cotton seed companies and the Maharashtra Government over pricing of cotton seeds have ended in favour of cotton seed companies.
Initially, the Maharashtra Government waited for Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh Government to take a call on cotton seed prices. Last week upon informing that Maharashtra Government won't increase the prices, seed companies hinted that they would sell their cotton seeds to states which would fetch them higher prices.
Following this the cotton seed prices which were kept stagnant for the last three years by the government were allowed to revise its prices. The Bollgard I and Bollgard II seeds will now be sold for Rs 830 per packet and Rs 930 per packet instead of Rs 650 per packet and Rs 750 per packet (of 450 grams) respectively.
During the previous year the cotton acreage was at 39 lakh hectare and the seed requirement of the state was 1 .40 crore packets. This year, the area is expected to go up to 45 lakh hectare and hence the state will need about 1.80 crore packets. Translating this with the price increase of Rs 180 per packet, it will yield Rs 324 crore to the seed companies on the sale of BT cotton seeds in Maharashtra alone. During Kharif 2011, seed companies expect to sell about 4 crore packets of BT cotton seeds nationally yielding them Rs 720 crore.
The S&P CNX Nifty dropped 70.20 points or 1.28% at 5,428.80. The index touched high and low of 5,523.85 and 5,421.05 respectively.
The top gainers on the Nifty were ITC up 1.64%, Dr. Reddy up 1.27%, Sun Pharma up 0.98%, HUL up 0.90% and TCS up 0.79%. While, SBI down 7.77%, ONGC down 5.98%, SAIL down 4.21%, GAIL down 4.11% and Ambuja Cement down 3.84% were the top losers on the index.
The Asian markets were trading on a mixed note. Hang Seng down 0.26%, Nikkei 225 shed 0.09%, Seoul Composite down 0.08% and Taiwan Weighted down 0.31%. On the flip side Shanghai Composite up 0.13%. Besides stock markets in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore will remain shut today on account of public holiday.
The European markets were also trading in mix. CAC 40 up 0.22%, DAX dropped 0.54% and FTSE 100 down 0.11%.
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