TIGHT BAND

Indian equity markets are trading marginally lower in the late morning session on Thursday, amid alternate bouts of buying and selling. Moving in a tight range, BSE benchmark - Sensex fell by almost 20 points, while NSE benchmark Nifty down by 6.85 points, as investors booked profits after two sessions of gains. Meanwhile, investors were awaiting for some measure trigger like rate-cut in the next monetary policy, in order to warrant any strong buying. In currency markets, rupee recovered marginally against greenback on dollar selling by some banks. On sectoral front, metal stocks were mostly trading down snapping early sessions rally. Oil, FMCG and automobile stocks were also quite subdued amid lackluster trades. Select information technology, capital goods, realty, power and healthcare stocks were trading in positive territory with smart gains. On the global front, most Asian markets were trading down as investors focused on meetings of the central banks in Britain and the euro zone for signs of more policy stimulus. Back home, the market breadth favoring positive trend; there were 1,183 shares on the gaining side against 1,170 shares on the losing side while 113 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,232.00, down by 20.61 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 19,275.61 and 19,212.92. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.03% and Small cap index was up by 0.19%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 1.38%, Teck up by 1.03%, Capital Goods up by 0.64%, Realty up by 0.50% and Healthcare up by 0.34% while, Metal down by 1.49%, Oil & Gas down by 0.73%, Auto down by 0.51%, PSU down by 0.38% and FMCG down by 0.25% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 3.13%, Sun Pharma up by 1.92%, Wipro up by 1.72%, TCS up by 1.55% and BHEL up by 1.45%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel was down by 2.80%, Hindalco Industries was down by 2.31%, Tata Steel was down by 2.01%, Tata Motors was down by 1.86% and  Sterlite Industries was down by 1.36% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the government is expected to get around Rs 23,000 crore by levying one-time spectrum fee on existing operators for holding radiowaves beyond a prescribed limit. The government had issued notices to telecom companies including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and BSNL, MTNL and Idea Cellular for the excess spectrum they hold beyond the prescribed limit. The operators were given the option to give up spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz if they did not wish to pay the charges.

State-owned BSNL will have to pay around Rs 6,912 crore, Bharti Airtel - Rs 5,201 crore, Vodafone - Rs 3,599 crore, MTNL - Rs 3,205 crore and Idea Cellular - Rs 1,882 crore. To be more precise, the government is likely to get Rs 4,251.83 crore from retrospective charges, Rs 18,925.82 crore from prospective charges. In all Rs 23,177.65 crore is expected from levy of one-time spectrum fee.

Earlier, for pan-India operations, telecom firms were given 4.4 MHz spectrum with license for Rs 1,658 crore and later were permitted to get another 1.8 MHz on fulfillment of certain subscriber-base criteria. However, in November, the government decided that the telecom operators will have to pay charges for holding spectrum above 6.2 MHz retrospectively, for the period of July 2008 to January 1, 2013. For spectrum above 4.4 MHz, they would have to pay for the remaining period of their licences starting January 1, 2013.

There is no respite for the telecom operators, being under the anvil from time and again. However given the option to forfeit the spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz if they did not wish to pay the charges, the operators have reluctantly agreed to pay.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,811.75 down by 6.85 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 5,820.55 and 5,801.30. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 3.20%, Sun Pharma up by 1.93%, Wipro up by 1.69%, DLF up by 1.63% and BHEL up by 1.58%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel & Power down by 2.79%, Hindalco down by 2.36%, Tata Steel down by 1.98%, Cairn down by 1.94% and Sesa Goa down by 1.88% were the major losers on the index.

Most Asian equity indices were trading in red; Jakarta Composite jumped 0.12%, Nikkei 225 added 0.17% and Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.13%.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 1.46%, KLSE Composite slipped 0.07%, Hang Seng decreased 0.21%, Straits Times declined 0.12% and KOSPI Composite was down by 0.87%.