SEE - SAW

The Indian equity benchmarks are see-sawing as investors were worried about the financial situation in eurozone and weak domestic industrial growth. Sensex was though currently trading flat in positive territory as expectations of some monetary easing by the central bank later this week had prompted investors to pick up some blue chip stocks. While, Nifty pared all its gains and had moved in the red zone. On sectoral front capital goods majors remained under pressure post yesterday's disappointing industrial output data. Information technology stocks were trading higher due to continuous depreciation in rupee. Select FMCG, metal and healthcare stocks have moved up after opening on a weak note. On the global front markets, the Asia-Pacific region was witnessing selling pressures on worries about the financial situation in Europe. Back home, the market breadth was favoring the negative trend; there were 772 shares on the gaining side against 1470 shares on the losing side while 108 shares remained unchanged.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 15,873.98, up by 3.63 points or 0.02%. The index has touched a high and low of 15,944.50 and 15,771.59 respectively. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 declines on the index.
The broader indices continued to stage somber mood; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices declined by 0.88% and 0.76% respectively.
Health Care (HC) up by 0.42%, Information Technology (IT) up by 0.26%, Oil & Gas up by 0.24%,TECk up by 0.23% and Metal up by 0.12% were the top gaining sectoral indices on BSE's 30 share index-Sensex.
The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were, CD down by 1.43%, CG down by 0.91%, Bankex down by 0.80%, PSU down by 0.75% and Power down by 0.45%.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 2.14%, Hindalco Industries up by 1.90%, BHEL up by 1.51%, Cipla up by 1.36% and Tata Power up by 1.12%
On the flip side, L&T down by 1.73%, ONGC down by 1.44%, NTPC down by 1.32%, Tata Steel was down by 1.23% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.09% were the top losers on the Sensex.
Meanwhile, the depreciation of Indian rupee against American dollar has increased the fuel subsidy by Rs 50,000 crore as country has to pay more for its oil imports.  The Oil Secretary G C Chaturvedi said 'Every time the rupee depreciates by Re one against the US dollar, Rs 8,000 crore is added to the fuel subsidy bill. The rupee has depreciated from Rs 46 to a US dollar to roughly Rs 52 per US dollar, thereby adding Rs 50,000 crore (to the subsidy).'
The government owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) are estimated to lose a record Rs 137,605 crore this financial year on selling diesel, kerosene and domestic cooking gas at the government controlled rates.  This huge revenue loss by the OMCs will have significant impact on the government's fiscal deficit target for the current financial year. 'The government has to look at means of meeting this deficit,' Chaturvedi said.
The Oil Secretary also denied dual pricing of diesel under which users like mobile telephone towers and electricity generators would had to shell out rates higher than the current subsidized rate for the fuel, saying the proposal is not practical to implement. 'We will not be able to administer it and will lead to lot of hurdles,' he added.

Diesel is the most consumed fuel in India however, in order to protect common man from international commodity price volatility it is sold at subsidized rates. Diesel is mostly used for transport sector, both trucks and passenger buses, and it also used by farmers in irrigation pumps and other agriculture equipments. However, the subsidized fuel is used in luxury cars; SUVs, so do power generators at malls and telecom towers. But deregulating diesel and LPG are not politically feasible for this coalition led government. In June 2010, the government has decontrolled petrol prices, however, it has kept its control on diesel prices, as any change in the diesel prices will have significant impact on the inflation, which is already hovering above 9%.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4,757.85, down by 6.75 points or 0.14%. The index has touched a high and low of 4,782.40 and 4,728.50 respectively. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 declining ones on the index.
The top gainers of the Nifty were HCL Technologies up by 2.38%, Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 1.99%, Tata Power up by 1.81%, Hindalco up by 1.78% and Dr Reddy up by 1.69%.On the flip side, Reliance Power down by 3.18%, Siemens down by 2.78%, PNB down by 2.48%, Reliance Infra down by 2.27% and Axis Bank down by 1.89% were the major losers on the index.
Asian equity indices continued trading on dismal note; Shanghai Composite declined 1.59%, Hang Seng dropped 0.98%, Jakarta Composite shrugged off 1.28%, Nikkei 225 lost 1.19%, Straits Times slipped 0.74%, Seoul Composite plunged 1.54% and Taiwan Weighted skid 0.76%.