MARKETS LINGER JUST BELOW NEUTRAL LINE

After recovering from intraday lows, Indian equity indices continue to linger just below the neutral line in the afternoon trades. The psychological 19,000 and 5,700 levels are proving as strong support levels for the frontline indices which are oscillating around those levels since morning. Persistent position build up in high beta real estate and rate sensitive automobile stocks have helped the markets by negating the adverse impact of plunge in metals and mining stocks on reports that a panel of ministers have approved a new bill calling for coal miners to share up to 26% of their profits with people directly affected, in a bid to smoothen the land acquisition process. The group of ministers has agreed to earmark 100% of the royalty paid by major mineral mining companies, to compensate people displaced by such projects. Profit booking was also witnessed in counters like PSU, Oil & Gas and Capital Goods. Financial stocks like HDFC and Indusind Bank surged around a percent point in the session ahead of their first quarterly earnings announcement expected later in the session. On the global front, though the Asian markets which exhibited mixed trends were unable to give any direction to the local bourses, however, positive opening of European counterparts supported local sentiments.
However, the broader markets traded on a flat note in tandem with their larger peers this afternoon. The bourses consolidated on weak volumes of around Rs 0.50 lakh crore while the market breadth on BSE was in favor of declines in the ratio of 1179:1401 while 121 scrips remained unchanged.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,043.86 down by 34.44 points or 0.18% after trading as high as 19,131.70 and as low as 18,962.47. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 declines on the index.
The broader indices were trading on a soft note; the BSE Mid cap index advanced by 0.04% and Small cap eased by 0.12% respectively. 
On the BSE sectoral space, Realty up 2.99%, Auto up 0.84%, Power up 0.36%, CD up 0.35% and Teck up 0.15% were the major gainers, while Metal down 2.15%, PSU down 0.82%, Oil & Gas down 0.71%, Capital Goods down 0.36% and Bankex down 0.18% were the major losers on the index.
The top gainers on the Sensex were DLF up by 2.56%, ONGC up by 1.35%, Hero Honda up by 1.25%, Bharti Airtel up 1.09% and Bajaj Auto up 0.98%.
On the flip side, Sterlite down by 3.82%, Hindalco down 2.10%, Jindal Steel down 1.86%, ICICI Bank down 1.61% and JP Associates down by 1.52% were the major losers on the index.
The new mining Bill - approved by a 10-member Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on July 7, approved the Daft Mines and Mineral Development and Regulation (MMDR) Bill 2011, which recommends to make it compulsory for coal miners to share their 26% of profits to project affected people, whereas companies mining other resources like iron ore, bauxite and limestone, will be required to pay 100% of royalty on their production on the original inhabitants of the projects.
The MMDR bill, approved by GoM will be sent to cabinet for approval. The bill requires parliamentary approval after passing by cabinet to become a law. It will be applicable to new projects. Earlier, the ministry of coal has opposed the linking of profit sharing to royalty. Coal Minister Prakash Jaiswal had said that this would impact the profitability of coal companies. 

This move of government is not liked by the industrial bodies, as the decision of profit sharing will reduce the revenue of companies and increase the business cost. The 26% of profit sharing would cost around Rs 9,000 crore to the mining industry. However, the decision of profit-sharing is expected to make it easier for mining projects to win local approval and accelerate the pace of developments. Years of protests, have delayed many industrial projects, including South Korean steel maker POSCO's plant in Orissa, the biggest foreign direct investment in India at $12 billion.

India's mining sector has only opened up fully to private investors in recent years and state-run companies have lacked the funds and expertise to probe deeper than the top 50 metres or so where its iron ore and coal reserves are found. The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,717.10, lower by 11.85 points or 0.21% after trading as high as 5,740.40 and as low as 5,689.10. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.
The top gainers of the Nifty were DLF up by 3.16%, Siemens up by 2.49%, Ranbaxy up by 1.89%, Hero Honda up by 1.44% and ONGC up by 1.40%.
Sterlite down by 3.82%, Sesa Goa down 3.55%, SAIL down 2.61%, Hindalco down 2.22% and BPCL down 2.12% were the major losers on the index.
Asian markets are exhibiting mixed trends as Hang Seng added 0.87%, Jakarta Composite surged 1.42%, Nikkei 225 climbed 0.66% and Straits Times increased 0.61%.
On the flipside, Shanghai Composite slipped 0.06%, KLSE Composite inched down 0.29%, Seoul Composite shed 0.01% and Taiwan Weighted declined 0.27%
The European markets have opened on a positive note as France's CAC 40 added 0.46%, Germany's DAX gained 0.44% and London's FTSE rose 0.22%