DOWNTREND

Protracting previous week's downturn to the fresh one, barometer gauges after slipping into red in early trade, have now dipped their heads to the day's low point. Benchmark indices have widened their loss on the back of the stocks belonging from the Realty, Capital Goods and metal counters. Market men resorted to hefty profit booking in early deals on the back of high oil prices which could spark off inflation issues. Rising crude oil prices lead to Nifty breaking the 5400 level on the downside; while the volatile 30 share index of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)-Sensex-too was seen trading below its psychological 18000 level.

Brent crude snapping five days of gains stayed near 10-month highs above $125 due to concerns over supply disruption as tension rose over Iran's disputed nuclear programme. However, stocks from defensive Fast moving Consumer Goods counter, which usually outperform in sluggish trade, have puffed up gains of close to a percent. Indian equity markets also failed to show any fervor in fresh trading week tracing gloomy leads of Asian pacific markets, which edged lower despite positive close of Wall Street on Friday night. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 continuing a pattern of steady gains on signs of U.S. economic recovery rose on Friday to close at the highest level since before the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. However, even the US future indices continued to show a downtick in the screen trade.

Back home, broader indices slipped fast and deep in red in comparison to the frontline indices, Midcap index suffered a cut of over a percent and a half, while loss of Smallcap Index was limited to a percent and a half. The overall market breadth on BSE strongly favoured declines which outpaced advances in the ratio of 1451:734, while 70 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,753.28, down by 170.29 points or 0.95%. The index has touched a high and a low of 17,975.19 and 17,746.60 respectively.  There were 7 stocks advancing against 22 declining one on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices too edged lower in line with frontline indices; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.67% while, Small cap index was down by 1.51%.

Realty down by 3.48%, CG down by 3.33%, Metal down by 2.85%, Power down by 2.19% and Auto down by 1.81% were the top losers on the index. On the flip side, defensive FMCG space up by 0.97% was the lone gainer on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 1.05%, HUL up by 0.95%, Cipla up by 0.78%, Sun Pharma up by 0.69% and HDFC Bank up by 0.63%.

On the flip side, L&T down by 3.73%, BHEL down by 3.40%, DLF down by 3.39%, Tata Steel down by 3.03% and Hindalco Industries down by 2.91% were the top losers on the index.

Meanwhile, the ground work on the ambitious National Manufacturing Policy (NMP) is likely to start as early as August this year, as per Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Anand Sharma. As per the minister, much progress has been made in the area of land acquisition for setting up the National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZ) and the ministry will soon move towards setting them up.

The NMP was launched earlier this year with much fanfare. Even though the Cabinet had approved the NMP in October 2011, substantial groundwork was yet to start. The main objective of the policy was to raise the share of manufacturing sector in the gross domestic product to 25% from the present 15-16%, by the end of the decade. The NMP offers a number of fiscal incentives besides having a special focus on the small and medium industry sectors. The government through the policy aims to create 100 million new jobs by 2025 and develop new mega industrial zones.

The policy so far had been stuck due to failure of the labour, environment and finance ministries to issue notifications on the new policy. The most important and controversial aspect of the NMP was the creation of large-scale manufacturing zones. The first phase of the National Investment and Manufacturing Zone had been planned along the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor; however the Labour and Environment Ministries locked horns with the Department of Industry over the issue of certain relaxations of labour and environmental laws in the new manufacturing zones. Sharma is now hopeful that all departments will notify the policy by the end of March.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading lower by 57.70 at 5,371.60. The index has touched a high and a low of 5,449.80 and 5,368.10 respectively. There were 11 stocks advancing against 39 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BPCL up by 3.05%, ITC up by 1.22%, Cairn up by 0.96%, HUL up by 0.74% and Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 0.72%.

Sesa Goa down by 9.66%, L&T down by 3.83%, DLF down by 3.70%, IDFC down by 3.62% and BHEL down by 3.49%, were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Shanghai Composite up by 0.73%, Hang Seng addec 0.26%, KLSE Composite gained 0.18% and Nikkei 225 rose by 0.12%.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite declined by 0.99%, Straits Times shed 0.24% and Seoul Composite plunged 1.42%. 

However, stock markets in Taiwan remained closed on Monday on account of Peace Memorial Day holiday.