MARKETS CONTINUE TO LOOSE GROUND

Indian stock markets continue to capitulate in the mid afternoon session of trade as both the benchmarks shaved off around a percent point after investors' exerted hefty selling pressure across the counter. The spiraling international crude oil prices which hovered at uncomfortable levels spooked the mood of investors at large as they feared that rising oil prices would lead to heightened inflationary pressure which in turn will compel the RBI to take policy actions in its annual monetary policy review meet next month. Huge bouts of profit booking were witnessed in rate sensitive counters like Real Estate and Auto, which plummeted 2.44% and 2.02% respectively while Banking heavyweights like SBI , HDFC Bank  and ICICI Bank were not spared either. On the global front, cues remained optimistic as majority of Asian indices settled in the positive territory with recent quake stricken Japanese stocks remaining the top gainers with around two percent gains. On the other hand, European counterparts too are trading on a sanguine note with France's CAC being the top gainer after surging around a percent.

Meanwhile, the broader markets too succumbed to the selling pressure after the tremendous rally in previous few sessions and are trading with cuts of over a percent. The market breadth on the BSE was in favour of declines in the ratio of 956: 1921 while 75 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex slipped 154.88 points or 0.79% at 19,436.30. The index touched a high and a low of 19,697.21 and 19,410.42 respectively.

The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices plunged 1.25% and 1.39%, respectively.

On the BSE sectoral front, FMCG up 0.10% and CG up 0.03% remained the only gainers.

On the flip side, Realty down 2.44%, Auto down 2.02% and CD down 1.75%, PSU down 1.67% and Oil & Gas down 1.52% were the major losers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up 1.61%, L&T up 0.52%, Sterile Industries up 0.43%, ITC up 0.25% and HUL up 0.09%.

On the flip side, JP Associates down 3.77%, Tata Motors down by 3.47%, Hindalco down 3.10%, DLF down 2.78% and Reliance Infra down 2.38% were the top losers on the index.

Meanwhile, Indian Railways managed to achieve the targeted level of earnings in the last financial year despite a number of public protests impacting its operations on several days in North India in the last quarter as a strong economy boosts demand for rail transport.

According to the Railways, total earnings in the last financial year reached Rs 94,742 crores compared to the Budgeted earnings of Rs 94,850 crore. A lot of concerns were expressed that given the stagnant fares and other operational difficulties, railways will fail to meet the target. But according to Railway officials, surging demand, particularly for freight transport in a rapidly recovering economy helped the largest transporter in the country to achieve the financial targets.  

Out of the total earnings of Indian Railways in 2010-11, freight earnings constituted approximately Rs 62,900 crore or 66.3%. This compares with a target of Rs 62,489.33 crore set in the Rail Budget for last year. On the other hand, earnings from and passengers stood approximately at Rs 26,007 as against the target of Rs 26,126.47 crore. The figures however are provisional yet and final data will be released later in the month.

Increase in coal loading as well as that of food grains and fertilizers has helped expand freight earnings of Railways even as the ban imposed by the Karnataka on movement of iron ore for export purposes impacted the revenue. The Railways expect the positive trend to continue in FY12 as well as demand for freight transport, particularly for commodities coal, fertilizer and food grains is expected to remain strong.  

The S&P CNX Nifty shaved off 53 points or 0.90% at 5,832.70. The index touched high and low of 5,926.95 and 5,828.75, respectively.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Bharti Airtel up 1.50%, Ranbaxy up 0.87%, Grasim up 0.81%, Sun Pharma up 0.68% and L&T up 0.37%.

On the other hand, JP Associates down 3.77%, R Power down 3.39%, Tata Motors down 3.32%, Hindalco down 3.26% and IDFC down 3.06% were the major losers on the index.

Shanghai Composite was up 0.74%, Hang Seng was up 0.47%, Jakarta Composite was up 0.30%, Nikkei 225 was up 1.85%, Straits Times was up 0.19% and Seoul Composite was up 0.27%.On the other hand only KLSE Composite was down 0.28% and Taiwan Weighted was down 0.08%.

The European markets are trading on an optimistic note as the France's CAC 40 up 0.83%, Germany's DAX up 0.49% and Britain's FTSE 100 up 0.71%.