THIN BAND

Benchmark equity indices gyrating in a thin band have sustained losses incurred for third consecutive session as morose results of state assembly elections on Tuesday, mainly triggered sell off for third consecutive session at Dalal Street. Further, gloomy global leads also failed to provide any thrust to Indian equity markets.  Asian markets tracing the sluggish close of Wall Street overnight, succumbed to selling pressure in early deals. Asian pacific shares edged lower as investors grew more risk averse, with renewed uncertainty over Greece's bailout and mounting worries about slowing global economies overshadowing support provided by ample liquidity.

Back on the home turf, the early rout was led by stocks belonging from the Oil & Gas, Metal and Realty counters. However, stocks from Information Technology, Health Care counters staged resilience. The 30 share index plummeting over 50 points is currently trading sub 17200 level, while the 50 share index incurring a loss of over 15 points, gyrating close to 5200 level. The broader indices too participated in the gut of the holiday shortened week. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 1308:855, while 85 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,111.13, down by 62.16 points or 0.36%. The index has touched a high and a low of 17,173.18 and 17,051.28 respectively. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The broader indices too succumbed to selling pressure; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were down by 0.43% and 0.44% respectively.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Information Technology up by 0.11% and Health Care up by 0.06%. On the flip side, Oil and Gas down by 0.93%, Metal down by 0.86%, Realty down by 0.74%, Public Sector Undertaking down by 0.72% and Power down by 0.64% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto up by 1.68%, Wipro up by 1.25%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.18%, Tata Steel up by 0.83% and Cipla up by 0.56%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel was down by 2.88%, DLF down by 1.47%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.26%, Sterlite Industries down by 1.10% and Reliance Industries down by 1.08% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, with the view of easing and encouraging trade with Iran, the Indian government has decided to provide incentives for exports to Iran in rupee terms on par with those for export proceeds in freely convertible currency. As per a government notification, exports receipts realized from Iranian exports will be eligible to export benefits and incentives.

Iran is currently facing sanctions from the western countries for its 'doubtful' nuclear programme. India however has refused to comply completely with the sanctions stating that its developing economy needs Iranian oil. India has also decided to increase trade with Iran by tapping areas where lacunas have been created due to the sanctions.

In another development, Iran has also expressed its desire to export electricity directly to India. It has said that it is keen to help India with the country's much needed energy requirements and transporting electricity would be much cheaper than transporting natural gas. These comments have come after the tri-nation gas pipeline between India, Pakistan and Iran fell into a limbo.

India, Iran and Pakistan had entered an agreement for a tri-nation gas pipeline project to transport natural gas which could then be converted into power. However the project took a back seat when USA offered India an alternative source of energy by access to civil nuclear technology in lieu of the pipeline.

Iran has also expressed its keenness to use India as a model for development of clean energies as latter is one of the frontrunners in the field of generating renewable energies.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,203.15, lower by 19.25 points or 0.37%. The index has touched a high and a low of 5,221.65 and 5,183.50 respectively. There were 19 stocks advancing against 31 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Bajaj Auto up by 1.94%, Reliance Power up by 1.71%, Reliance Infra up by 1.62%, SAIL up by 1.19% and JP Associate up by 1.15%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 3.13%, Power Grid down by 2.79%, BPCL down by 2.42%,  DLF down by 1.90% and Sterlite Industries down by 1.49%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian counters were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite was down by 0.02%, Hang Seng declined 0.79%, Jakarta Composite slid 0.84%, KLSE Composite shed 0.82%, Nikkei 225 lost 0.80%, Straits Times edged lower by 0.67%, Seoul Composite descended by 0.66% and Taiwan Weighted registered loss of 0.33%.