MARKETS PRUNE EARLY GAINS

Barometer gauges halved their early gains as weakness crept into the markets on the back of stocks belonging to Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Information Technology (IT), Technology and Oil & Gas counters. Market men tracing the sluggish trend of regional counterparts, preferred booking profits on the early uptake of the bourses post previous session's massacre, which led to Indian equity markets' biggest daily fall since late February.

On the global front, imitating the dismal performance of Wall Street overnight, Asian stocks too were trading depressed in trade. Extending the biggest weekly decline of the year, Asian pacific shares dropped on Friday as a surprise drop in profit at China's third-largest bank rekindled concern growth will slow in the world's second-largest economy. Agricultural Bank of China, the nation's No. 3 lender, sank 3.1 percent in Hong Kong after reporting its first quarterly profit drop since listing two years ago amid lending restrictions and bad-loan costs. However, the US future indices, barring the trend, were showing an uptick in the screen trade.

Back home, optimism was still sustained by the Indian equity markets as foreign investors remained net buyers, suppressing worries over global risk aversion and domestic political uncertainty. After trading as high as 17,356.77, BSE's Sensex-was oscillating near the 17200 bastion. Similarly, the NSE's Nifty, too losing its crucial 5250 mental level, was gyrating around its neutral line. However, the broader indices, after being unable to decide upon trajectory, were exhibiting mixed trend. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1137:910, while 113 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 17,247.14, up by 50.67 points or 0.29%. The index has touched a high and a low of 17,356.77 and 17,179.33 respectively. There were 17 stocks advancing against only 13 declines on the index.

The broader indices too were exhibiting mixed trend; the BSE Mid cap was down by 0.10% and Small cap index rose 0.32%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) up by 0.86%, Information Technology up by 0.77%, Technology up by 0.69%, Oil & Gas up by 0.47% and Realty up by 0.38%.

On the flip side, Metal down by 0.81%, Auto down by 0.57%, Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) down by 0.15%, Power and Health Care (HC) were down by 0.14%

The top gainers on the Sensex were HUL up by 1.43%, TCS up by 1.32%, ITC up by 1.27%, Gail India up by 1.10% and RIL up by 1.04%.

While, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.24%, Sterlite Industries down by 2.19%, Bajaj Auto down by 2.00%, Jindal Steel down by 1.56% and Hindalco Industries down by 1.17% remained the few losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) clarified that the observations made in the 'leaked' draft regarding the allotment of coal blocks are highly misleading since the discussions were at a very preliminary stage. In fact CAG is not even of the opinion that the allotment would have necessarily meant an equal loss to the exchequer.

There was a huge uproar in the Parliament over a draft report by the CAG which accused the government of allotting coal blocks without auctioning, which it claimed had led to 'undue benefits' to commercial entities, totaling a mind-boggling Rs 10.67 lakh crore.

Later the Finance Minister clarified that the 'report' was actually a 'draft report' and the findings were not conclusive. The Prime Minister too has stated that since the report was just a draft, there was no need for him to clarify anything in the Parliament.

The coal minister, Sriprakash Jaiswal, however has clarified that the government is almost ready to auction coal blocks through competitive bidding and the guidelines for this are likely in 2-4 months. Coal India subsidiary CMPDI has been assigned the task for hiring a consultant to come out with a methodology of fixing the reserve price of blocks and finalizing the bid document, and assist in bidding process.

The government which will be facing general elections in 2014 is now trying hard to salvage the situation. The opposition is missing no opportunity to take advantage of the situation and has called it the 'mother of all scams'.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,239.05, higher by 10.60 points or 0.20%. The index has touched a high and a low of 5,278.45 and 5,220.00 respectively.  There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were HUL up by 1.76%, HCL Technologies up by 1.68%, Cairn India up by 1.45%, Gail India up by 1.42% and ITC up by 1.39%.

On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.30%, Sterlite Industries down by 2.07%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.93%, Jindal Steel down by 1.77% and Hindalco Industries down by 1.47% remained the top losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite declined 0.68%, Hang Seng dropped 0.96%, Nikkei 225 plunged 1.06%, Seoul Composite slipped 0.09% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.18%.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite gained 0.13%, KLSE Composite added 0.08% and Straits Times increased by 0.35%.