PROFIT BOOKING

After garnering decent gains in previous session, sentiments turned bearish on Friday's morning trade and benchmarks have made a gap-down start tracking weakness in equity markets across the globe. Global markets fell sharply on the back of gloomy economic reports from the US and China. Credit downgrade of world's 15 major banks by Moody's also dampened the investor's sentiments. Moreover, all the Asian equity indices barring KLSE Composite were trading in the red at this point of time. Back home, BSE's -- Sensex -- and NSE's -- Nifty -- lost their crucial 17,000 and 5,150 mark respectively. On the sectoral front power, healthcare, fast moving consumer goods and auto remained the few gainers while, oil and gas, metal and banking witnessed the most selling pressure, dragging down the Sensex. Meanwhile, cement stocks are trading under pressure after the CCI levied a penalty of nearly Rs 6,300 crore on 11 cement companies. Stocks of ACC, Ambuja Cements, Ultratech, India Cements, Madras Cements, Century Cements, Binani Cements, Lafarge India and Jaypee Cements, edged lower as all these companies were found in violation of the provisions of the Competition Act, 2002 by CCI. Moreover, telecom stocks like Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communication all edged lower as the much-awaited EGoM meeting headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, to finalise a base price for sale of spectrum, was deferred indefinitely.

The BSE Sensex opened at 16,882.74; about 150 points lower compared to its previous closing of 17,032.56, and has touched a high and a low of 16,952.53 and 16,855.85 respectively. The index is currently trading at 16,949.63 down by 82.93 points or 0.49%. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 declines on the index.

The broader indices, however, were trading flat at this point of time; the BSE Mid cap was down by 0.08% while Small cap was up by 0.01%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, HC up by 0.11%, FMCG up by 0.10% and Auto up by 0.08%. While, Oil and Gas down by 0.82%, Metal down by 0.61%, Bankex down by 0.45%, IT down by 0.43% and TECk down by 0.42% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 1.40%, BHEL up by 0.92%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.71%, HUL up by 0.70% and TCS up by 0.70%.

On the flip side, HDFC was down by 1.58%, GAIL was down by 1.44%, RIL was down by 1.41%, Infosys was down by 1.29% and Sterlite Industries was down by 1.21% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, India and China, the two emerging nations often regarded as global growth machines, are aiming to boost bilateral trade between the two leading Asian economies to $100 billion by 2015. The two Asian giants enjoyed a bilateral trade of a record $73.9 billion in the previous year. However, India's trade deficit with China enlarged to $27.07 billion, even as Indian exports grew nearly 13 percent to $23.4 billion, according to official data.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is in Brazil to attend Rio+20 Summit, met his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao and brought to his notice the large trade surplus in China's favor. The Chinese premier, who met Manmohan Singh for the 13th time since 2004, acknowledged that India has a large trade deficit with the Asian giant and in that context he said rice exports from India would be allowed soon.

Chinese officials have assured India that it can start exporting basmati rice to Asia's largest Chinese economy soon following a long and tortuous six-year process that has been seen as underscoring the difficulties of navigating the complex bureaucratic hurdles that bar entry into the Chinese markets. Now that the regulatory issues, which existed earlier, have resolved Indian exporters may soon begin shipping basmati rice to China after both countries agree on a mutually satisfactory quarantine protocol.

Wen Jiabao has also vowed to encourage Chinese investments in India's infrastructure. India has set an investment target of at least Rs 2 lakh crore for core sector projects in the current fiscal. The two leaders also spoke of the joint mechanism set up by the two sides and agreed to form an inter-ministerial group within their respective countries on maritime matters, and deploy officials to hold formal talks on subjects pertaining to security, trade, navigation and other issues, including piracy.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,101.75; about 64 points lower compared to its previous closing of 5,165.00, and has touched a high and a low of 5,140.85 and 5,097.30 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,138.00, lower by 27.00 points or 0.52%. There were 11 stocks advancing against 39 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Cipla up by 1.66%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.11%, M&M up by 1.04%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.02% and BHEL up by 0.81%.

On the flip side, Jaiprakash Associates down by 2.68%, Ambuja Cement down by 2.27%, ACC down by 1.83%, HDFC down by 1.67% and Infosys down by 1.43%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the red. Nikkei fell by 27.22 point or 0.31 percent, South Korea's Kospi shed 42 point or 2.22 percent, Shanghai Composite fell 32 point or 1.40 percent, Hang Seng index too fell by 197.56 points or 1.03 percent, Straits Times shed 15.23 points or 0.54 percent and Jakarta Composite fell by 32.03 points or 0.82 percent.

The only index in green was KLSE composite, which gained 5.26 points or 0.33 percent.