SLUGGISH START

After trading in a consolidation phase last week, the Indian equity markets have made a sluggish start tracking weakness in global markets and rupee. The Asian markets were trading lower after poor US jobs data reinforced concerns about flagging global growth, while domestic industrial machinery makers suffered losses on falling orders. On the other hand, Chinese annual consumer inflation cooled to 2.2% in June, from May's 3.0%, giving Beijing more scope to ease monetary policy to support growth without stoking upward price pressures. Back home, Indian rupee, which showed smart recovery after EU summit, was moving down towards 56 level. It was down by 47 paise to 55.87 against the US dollar today. Meanwhile, investors are eying quarterly earnings of IT biggies Infosys and TCS, and the index of industrial production (IIP) for May, which will be the key triggers. Kicking off the April-June India Inc's earnings season amongst the large-caps will be HDFC, which announces its results on July 11, followed by Infosys, TCS on July 12 and HDFC Bank on July 13. On the sectoral front, software, technology and fast moving consumer goods remained the few gainers while, metal, power and capital goods remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were struggling to get some traction while, the market breadth has made a negative start; there were 625 shares on the gaining side against 742 shares on the losing side.

The BSE Sensex opened at 17,449.93; about 71 points lower compared to its previous closing of 17,521.12, and has touched a high and a low of 17,471.09 and 17,412.32 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 17,457.40, down by 63.72 points or 0.36%. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a negative start. The broader indices too were trading in the red; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were down by 0.36% and 0.26% respectively. 

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 0.62%, TECk up by 0.28% and FMCG up by 0.19%. While, Metal down by 1.12%, Power down by 0.98%, CG down by 0.92%, Bankex down by 0.65% and PSU down by 0.47% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 1.35%, Infosys up by 0.74%, Dr Reddy up by 0.43%, ITC up by 0.34% and HUL up by 0.25%.

On the flip side, Tata Power down by 1.50%, Jindal Steel down by 1.31%, HDFC Bank down by 1.27%, Tata Steel down by 1.08% and Hindalco down by 1.05% were the top losers on the index.

Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reported that the Indian companies garnered about Rs 18,630 crore ($3.37 billion) in May, whereas it garnered $2.73 billion in April from the same route. The money raised was for fund modernization, foreign acquisitions, import of capital goods and onward lending.

Eighty Indian companies have raised the overseas fund. Out of this 71 firms raised $935 million via automatic route through  external commercial borrowings (ECBs) and foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCB), while 7 firms raised $2.43 billion was through the approval route, requiring case-by-case approval from RBI.

Reliance Industries raised $2 billion under approval route for import of capital goods. While, the state run carrier Air India raised $195.5 million during the month for import of capital goods. EXIM Bank and SREI Equipment Finance have garnered about $100 million each for onward/sub-lending and import of capital goods respectively.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,283.70; about 33 points lower compared to its previous closing of 5,316.95, and has touched a high and a low of 5,296.80 and 5,281.55 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,293.45, down by 23.50 points or 0.44%. There were 9 stocks advancing against 41 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were TCS up by 1.06%, DLF up by 1.02%, Infosys up by 0.55%, BPCL by 0.50% and GAIL up by 0.41%.

Reliance Infra down by 2.22%, JP Associates down by 1.62%, Tata Power down by 1.59%, Ranbaxy down by 1.55% and Jindal Steel down by 1.45%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite was down by 24.94 points or 1.12% to 2,198.64, Hang Seng index plunged by 294.67 points or 1.49 % to 19,505.97, Jakarta Composite dipped 54.54 points or 1.34% 4,000.65, KLSE Composite declined 1.00 point or 0.06% to 1,619.55, Nikkei dipped by 92.63 points or 1.03% to 8,928.12, Strait Times declined by 33.42 points or 1.12% to 2,945.13. Kospi Composite Index shed 23.21 points or 1.25% to 1,834.99, Taiwan Weighted plummeted 68.69 points or 0.93% to 7,299.90.