GAP DOWN START

The Indian equity markets have made a gap down start and are butchered in the early trade tracking weak global cues after Federal Reserve said there are significant downside risks to the US economy. The US markets suffered sharp sell-off overnight after Fed said it will sell $400 billion worth of short-term securities to buy longer-term securities, in a move that could ultimately reduce rates on mortgages and other consumer and business loans while, all the Asian counterparts were trading in the red, indicating somber investors' sentiment. Back home, the domestic bourses reeling under pressure as only Tata Power and ONGC were trading higher among the 30 Sensex stocks. While, continued selling by foreign funds and retail investors dampened the sentiments and BSE's Sensex and NSE's Nifty lost their crucial 16,900 and 5,100 mark respectively in the initial trade. On the sectoral front, realty, metal and banking remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space while, there were no gainer on the index. However, PSU oil marketing companies viz., BPCL, HPCL and IOL all were trading with a gain of over a percent as crude oil prices declined after dollar strengthened on Fed move. The broader indices too were struggling to get some traction and were trading in the red at this point of time while, the market breadth has made a negative start; there were 441 shares on the gaining side against 1,280 shares on the losing side while 44 shares remained unchanged.
The BSE Sensex opened at 16,827.85; about 238 points lower compared to its previous closing of 17,065.15, and has touched a high and a low of 16,833.61 and 16,765.36 respectively.
The index is currently trading at 16,808.93, down by 256.22 points or 1.50%. There were only 2 stocks advancing against 28 declines on the index.
The overall market breadth has made a subdued start with only 24.99% stocks advancing against 72.52% declines. The broader indices too were bleeding badly; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were down by 1.10% and 0.96% respectively.
Realty down by 2.49%, Metal down by 2.18%, Bankex down by 1.90%, Auto down by 1.72% and TECk down by 1.45% were the top losers on the index. While, there was no gainer on the index.
Sterlite Industries down by 3.65%, Tata Motors down by 3.58%, DLF down by 3.28%, Tata Steel down by 2.62% and Hindalco down by 2.57% were the top losers on the index. While, Tata Power up by 0.67% and ONGC up by 0.33% remained the only gainers on the index.
Meanwhile, in order to control illegal mining, the government is planning to introduce online system by December for mandatory registration of all minerals-related transactions in the country. From last few years, there has been a rapid step-up in illegal mining in various states. In January-March 2011, around 24,405 cases of illegal mining cases have been registered.   Mines Secretary S Vijay Kumar said, 'we are going to introduce an end-to-end accounting system by the end of this year for all mineral transactions including mining, selling, transportation and export by miners, traders and exporters. This will check illegal mining'. By adding further he said, under the online system, registration of miners, traders and exporters of major minerals like iron ore, lime and bauxite will be a must. The registration will be done under the Mineral Conservation Development Rules (MCDR) through an amendment.
Currently, there are less legal provisions for the central intervention in the illegal mining in the state, however, the scale of crisis is very high, and around 82,330 cases were detected in 2010, which are almost double the 41,578 cases in 2009.
In September 21 meeting, the Central Coordination-cum-Empowered Committee (CEC) decided that the government will use satellite imagery to curb the menace. The state governments have been guided to control the illegal mining by improving monitoring of mineral system through empowered committees and district level task forces and fixing the loopholes in the royalty collection system.
The CEC also reviewed the situation regarding many important aspects of mineral concession systems in India, and gave stress on the need for bringing about more efficiency and transparency in the system. The meeting was attended by the representatives from Ministries of Environment and Forests, Defence, Home Affairs, Steel, Civil Aviation, Railway, Shipping, Finance. And official from the Indian Bureau of Mines and Geological Survey of India also participated in the meeting.
The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,054.45; about 79 points lower compared to its previous closing of 5,133.25, and has touched a high and a low of 5,059.85 and 5,039.80 respectively.
The index is currently trading at 5,053.15, down by 80.10 points or 1.56%. There were just 3 stocks advancing against 47 declines on the index.
The only gainers of the Nifty were Tata Power up by 0.82%, ONGC up by 0.33% and BPCL up by 0.30%.
Tata Motors down by 3.73%, Sterlite Industries down by 3.54%, SAIL down by 3.43%, DLF by 3.40% and RCom was down by 2.93%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian counterparts were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite was down 43.61 points or 1.74% to 2,469.36, Hang Seng was down 768.86 points or 4.08% to 18,055.31, Jakarta Composite was down 209.37 points or 5.66% to 488.13, KLSE Composite was down 18.37 points or 1.29% to 1,400.67, Nikkei 225 was down 183.60 points or 2.10% to 8,557.56, Straits Times was down 48.08 points or 1.72% to 2,743.71, Seoul Composite was down 61.68 points or 3.33% to 1,792.60 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 225.56 points or 2.99% to 7,310.32.