Markets continue to trade in red; IT pack moves higher

Indian equity markets continue to trade lower in the late morning session tracking negative global cues while all the other regional peers were also trading in red at this point of time .US index futures were showing down tick in the screen trade. The domestic markets extended their losses as sentiments got somber due to overnight losses on Wall Street and the European markets after US housing starts declined and Goldman Sachs' profit missed the consensus estimates.  Back home, Index heavy weightings like Reliance Industries (RIL) was trading lower by over a  percent  with the stock falling for the sixth straight day ,the company is expected to announces Q3 result on Friday, 21 January 2011.the other heavyweight  ICICI Bank too declined by about a percent . The state-run Air India has given ICICI Bank the mandate to refinance loans to purchase 21 Airbus A 320 aircraft worth Rs. 5,500 crore. On the same time, TCS rose by about two percent while other IT major Wipro rose 0.33% ahead of its Q3 December 2010 results on Friday, 21 January 2011. IT bellwether Infosys gained 0.34% , all these IT companies were trying to give some strength to the markets. In the sectoral space Oil and Gas down by 1.56% and FMCG down 1.18% were the major draggers of market. The broader indices were also down at this point of time Mid -cap index and Small-cap index were down by 0.12% and 0.23% respectively. The market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 1346 shares on the loser's side against 1065 shares on the gainers' side, while 90 shares were unchanged.

The BSE Sensex was declined by 105.97 points or 0.56% at 18,872.35.The index touched a high and a low of 18,933.23 and 18,824.22 respectively.

The BSE Mid-cap index and Small-cap index were down by 0.12% and 0.23% respectively.

The top loser's sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil and Gas down by 1.56%, FMCG down by 1.18%, Auto down by 0.92% Bankex down by 0.81% and Reality down by 0.37%.

On the other hand IT up by 0.66 %, TECk up 0.34%, HC up by 0.21 %, were the only gainers in BSE sectoral space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 1.82%, Hero Honda up by 0.98%, NTPC up by 0.80%, Jindal Steel up by 0.75% and Infosys up 0.34%.

ITC down by 2.34%, Sterlite Industries down by 2.34%, Tata Motors down by 2.22%, ONGC down by 1.93% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.39% were the top losers on the index.

The Indian government expects the private sector players, including the foreign players, to chip in with around 50% of the funding required for infrastructure projects over the next Five Year Plan (FYP) period of FY2013-2017. The Planning Commission has pegged total infra funding requirement for the said FYP at $1 trillion which means nearly $500 billion of private investment will be required. 

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Wednesday that infrastructure financing is one of the key concerns for the country, and private sector will have to play a role equivalent to that of the public sector to help ensure the target of $1 trillion investment in various infra projects was met. Indian economy is widely expected to clock 8-10% growth per year over next couple of decades, but its colonial era physical infrastructure is often cited as biggest road block in sustainable economic growth.

'Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), wherein the private sector is participating in the construction and operation of public infrastructure assets, is one of the most important developments in infrastructure delivery in our country,' the finance minister said adding India has developed over last several years a lot of capacity in implementing the PPP projects. 

Mukherjee was speaking following a meeting with the UK Secretary of State for Business, Innovations & Skills Vince Cable. The minister stressed that India and UK can learn a lot from each other's experiences. The two sides had launched Britain India Infrastructure Group (BIIG) which the finance minister expected to prove a major force in improving the physical infrastructure in the country.

Vince Cable said that many UK companies were looking to invest in India, particularly in the infrastructure sector and hoped that BIIG will provide a forum for such companies to identify and evaluate opportunities in India. The British secretary also urged the Indian government to provide a stable taxation regime hinting at the tax related controversy in which the UK's telecom major Vodafone is currently locked in.

The S&P CNX Nifty trimmed 31.75 points or 0.56% to 5,659.30.The index touched a high and a low of 5,680.15 and 5,644.40 respectively.

The top gainers of the Nifty were TCS up by 1.85%, Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 1.50%, NTPC up by 1.15%, Hero Honda up by 0.89% and Jindal Steel up by 0.81%.

The top losers of the index were GAIL down by 3.09%, Sterlite Industries down by 2.50%, PNB down by 2.32%, Tata Motors down by 2.21% and ITC down by 2.19%.

All the regional peers were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite trimmed 2.66%, Hang Seng slid 1.26%, Jakarta Composite declined 1.78%, Nikkei 225 shed 1.13%, Straits Times dropped 0.94%, Seoul Composite was declined 0.43% and Taiwan Weighted tumbled 0.43%.

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