NEGATIVE START

Prolonging their southbound journey, Indian benchmarks have made a negative start following subdued global cues. The US markets suffered sharp plunge on Friday with all the major indices losing over one and half a percent, led by tech stocks on some disappointing earnings announcements and poor home sales data while, most of the Asian counters were trading in the red at this point of time as lackluster earnings from leading US companies and a sharp drop in Japan's exports, a key driver of the world's third-biggest economy, dented risk appetites and prompted investors to take profits on recent gains.

Back home, the Indian frontline indices were trading range bound, after a initial fall, ahead of October F&O expiry on Thursday and RBI's policy meet on October 30. The sentiments also remained lower as UB group stocks like United Breweries (Holdings), United Breweries and Kingfisher Airlines tumbled after DGCA suspended flying licence of the group company Kingfisher Airline. However, the losses remain capped, supported by good Q2 numbers announced by IT bellwether TCS. The company, on consolidated basis, registered a rise of 49.25 percent in its net profit at Rs 3434.37 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2012 as compared to Rs 2301.00 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Meanwhile, Bajaj Auto too aided the sentiments on reporting rise of 2.05% in its net profit at Rs 740.67 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2012 as compared to Rs 725.80 crore for the same quarter in the previous year.

On the sectoral front, software witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by technology and healthcare while, realty, fast moving consumer goods and auto remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were trading mixed at this point of time while, the market breadth on the BSE was equally distributed; there were 785 shares on the gaining side against 796 shares on the losing side while 82 shares remain unchanged.  The BSE Sensex opened at 18,655.93; about 27 points lower compared to its previous closing of 18,682.31, and has touched a high and a low of 18,658.91 and 18,600.88 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 18,645.62, down by 36.69 points or 0.20%. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has been evenly divided with 47.20% stocks advancing against 47.87% declines. The broader indices however, were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.18% while, Small cap index rose 0.14%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 0.83%, TECk up by 0.54%, and HC up by 0.20%. While, Realty down by 0.96%, FMCG down by 0.83%, Auto down by 0.83%, Metal down by 0.71% and CG down by 0.69% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 1.95%, Cipla up by 1.25%, Dr Reddy up by 1.06%, ICICI Bank up by 0.88% and HUL up by 0.79%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors was down by 1.45%, ITC was down by 1.38%, Sterlite Industries was down by 1.35%, Sun Pharma was down by 1.22% and Jindal Steel was down by 1.22% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in conjunction with the widening of foreign direct investment (FDI) up to 51 percent, in multi-brand retail segment, the industry chamber ASSOCHAM and private sector lender Yes Bank, has come up with a joint report, which foresees about Rs 40,000 crore investment in multi-brand segment of India and expects an organized market growth to Rs 480,000 crore by 2016-17, as compared to 2011-12's Rs 160,000 crore growth. The report indicates that major foreign players are likely to create positive atmosphere for farmers, suppliers, consumers, economy and the enterprise itself.

It argues that FDI in retail will bring in adequate infrastructure, efficient management of supply chain, controlled food inflation, innovative products and new jobs. The study also points out that the foreign intervention will increase affluence among urban consumers, growing preferences for branded products and higher aspirations among youth will drive huge growth in organized retail segment of the country, which is expected to grow faster than total retail at 24% by 2016-17, with respect to stipulated 15% growth of total retail during the same period.

As per the study, the kirana stores are expected to contribute about 61% share of constant value sales, while modern grocery retailers will grow at a CAGR of 11.7% during 2011-16, where traditional grocery retailers is estimated to grow by 8.2%.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,667.60; about 17 points lower compared to its previous closing of 5,684.25, and has touched a high and a low of 5,672.40 and 5,658.05 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,669.55, down by 14.70 points or 0.26%. There were 14 stocks advancing against 36 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were TCS up by 1.95%, Cipla up by 1.27%, Cairn up by 1.26%, ICICI Bank up by 0.81% and HUL up by 0.79%.

On the flip side, Ambuja Cement down by 1.94%, Tata Motors down by 1.52%, ITC down by 1.41%, Sun Pharma down by 1.40% and Jindal Steel down by 1.35%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red, Shanghai Composite was down by 12.48 points or 0.59% to 2,115.82, Jakarta Composite lost 8.73 points or 0.20% to 4,322.89, KLSE Composite was lower by 2.26 points or 0.13% to 1,664.25, Nikkei 225 plunged by 73.14 points or 0.81% to 8,929.54, Straits Times declined by 8.12 points or 0.25% to 3,041.00, Kospi Composite fell by 19.85 points or 0.99% to 1,924.24 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 64.46 points or 0.87%.

On the other hand, Hang Seng up by 16.60 points or 0.08% to 21,568.36 was the lone gainer.