Benchmarks slip further on patchy earning
Benchmark equity indices continue to trade in the narrow range with a negative bias as traders remain cautious on account of patchy earning season, few of the major corporate like, Siemens, Hero Honda and ONGC have lost 2-3% on reporting disappointing numbers. However, broader indices have witnessed significant traction with BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices gaining by about a percent at this point of time. Moreover, Asian peers were also trading in a tight range while European index futures were seen in the negative zone in screen trading. Back home, CD, Bankex and Metal were the leading gainers in the BSE sectoral space. On the flip side, IT, Realty and TECk counters were the major laggards. The BSE???s 30-share Sensex continue to trade below the psychological 18,000-level while the NSE???s 50-share Nifty was marginally lower than its crucial 5,400-mark. The market breadth on the BSE was in the favour of advances; there were 1,581 shares on the gaining side against 1,113 shares on the losing side while 106 scrips remained unchanged.
The BSE Sensex opened at 17,981.06; about 10 points lower compared to its previous closing of 17,992.00, and has touched a high and low of 17,981.06 and 17,913.15 respectively. The index is currently trading at 17,960.76, down by 31.24 points or 0.17%.
The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap index rose 0.79% and 0.74% respectively.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were CD up by 0.64%, Bankex up by 0.39%, Metal up by 0.32%, HC up by 0.16% and PSU up by 0.08%.
The top losing sectoral index on the BSE were, IT down by 0.48%, TECk down by 0.37%, Realty down by 0.37%, Auto down by 0.25% and Power was down by 0.22%.
The top gainers on the Sensex were M&M up by 1.68%, Tata Steel up by 1.26%, SBI up by 1.20%, Hindalco up by 0.81% and ACC was up by 0.76%.
The top losers of the index were Hero Honda down by 2.53%, Tata Motors down by 1.88%, ONGC down by 1.18%, Wipro down by 1.04% and Bharti Airtel was down by 0.79%.
Meanwhile, In a major setback to the state owned telecom companies, Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) and the Communications Minister A Raja, the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday rejected a proposal for refund of the Rs 29,598 crore paid by the two companies for third generation (3G) and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum.
Pranab Mukherjee struck down the request put forth by Telecoms Minister A Raja citing legal complications that might arise if the fees were returned. Raja called on him at his office in the Parliament house for a brief meeting. Though, after the refusal Raja has been said to have proposed that the refund could be made in phases over the next few years. But when Mukherjee refused to budge, Raja cited the threat by staff unions of these companies to go on strike from next month if the demand for a refund was not met by the government. The unions of the state owned tecos have threatened to go on a three-day strike from September 21, followed by an indefinite strike, if the government doesn’t return the 3G and BWA money.
Earlier the government raised over Rs1,06,000 crore from the auction of 3G and wireless broadband spectrum this year, more than three times than its expectations. For 3G spectrum, BSNL has paid Rs 10186.58 crore, while MTNL has paid Rs 6564 crore. Meanwhile BSNL has paid Rs 8313.8 crore and MTNL Rs 4533.97 crore for BWA spectrum. Both BSNL and MTNL had taken loan to make the payment.
Raja had, a few weeks earlier, written to the Finance minister on precedents for the subsidy sought for BSNL and MTNL, besides mentioning the additional financial burden taken by these companies for services in loss-making rural markets as a reason for giving them special treatment. Now he is said to be working on an alternative proposal for the finance minister and may ask for additional subsidy to BSNL to recover its growing losses from rolling out services in rural areas.
The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,408.40; flat compared to its previous closing of 5408.90 and has touched a high and low of 5,413.25 and 5,382.80 respectively. The index is currently trading at 5,398.80, down by 10.10 points or 0.19%. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 declines on the index.
The top gainers of the Nifty were HCL Technology up by 3.15%, Ranbaxy up by 1.75%, M&M up by 1.72%, Kotak Bank up by 1.72% and PNB was up by 1.51%.
The top losers of the index were Hero Honda down by 2.94%, Siemens down by 2.54%, GAIL down by 2.30%,Tata Motors down by 1.98% and ONGC was down by 1.61%.
All Asian equity indices are trading in the red; Nikkei 225 was suffering the most and was down by 119.07 points or 1.23% to 9,576.95, Shanghai Composite was down by 19.99 points or 0.76% to 2,628.12, Hang Seng was down by 111.75 points or 0.53% to 20,982.07, Jakarta Composite was down by 10.15 points or 0.33% to 3,086.67, KLSE Composite was down by 1.03 points or 0.08% to 1,357.38, Straits Times was down by 14.25 points or 0.48% to 2,983.40, Seoul Composite was down by 8.18 points or 0.46% to 1,762.70 and Taiwan Weighted 38.36 points or 0.49% to 7,760.63.
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