Markets trade in the red tracking weak Asian markets

The Indian equity markets are trading in the red after making a flat start, tracking weak cues from the global markets. All the Asian counterparts, barring Hang Seng and Seoul Composite were trading in the negative terrain at this point of time, indicating somber investors' sentiments. The US markets too closed lower overnight on getting unexpectedly weak jobless claims data. Back home some selling pressure started building up as Steel Authority of India (SAIL) reported a decline of more than 30% in its Q3 net profit. Yesterday, IT bellwether Infosys Technology too came up with a below expected results. On the sectoral front, Software was the lone gainer in trade; on the other hand realty, metal and auto were the major losers on the BSE sectoral space. Rate sensitive sectors remain the hardest hit with expectation of rate hike by the RBI in its upcoming monetary policy review. The broader markets too were down going neck to neck with the benchmarks. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries, too, edged lower in the trade and was trading with a cut of over half a percent. The market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 542 shares on the gaining side against 1065 shares on the losing side while 56 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19,198.04; about 16 points higher compared to its previous closing of 19,182.82, and has touched a high and a low of 19,198.83 and 19,016.82 respectively.The index is currently trading at 19,016.82, down by 166.00 points or 0.87%. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a negative start with 32.59% stocks advancing against 64.04% declines. The broader indices were trading in line with benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were down by 0.77% and 0.49% respectively.

IT up by 0.18% was the lone gainer on sectoral space on the BSE. While, Realty down by 1.78%, Metal down by 1.69%, Auto down by 1.54%, CG down by 1.20% and Bankex down by 1.11%, were the major losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 1.51%, RCom up by 0.72%, HUL up by 0.46%, Tata Power up by 0.26% and Infosys was up by 0.24%.

Tata Motors down by 3.13%, DLF down by 2.06%, ONGC down by 1.99%, Tata Steel down by 1.87% and Hindalco down by 1.64% were the top losers on the index.

Meanwhile, Mobile banking is finally set to take off in the country with a couple of major telecom operators entering into tie ups with leading banks to offer the services. The move can do wonders for the objective of greater financial inclusion and will go far in taking financial services to rural areas where bank branches may not be feasible. Further, it provides an additional revenue stream with vast potential to the competition hit industry. Mobile banking jump starts with telco-bank deals, it will provide an additional revenue stream with vast potential to the competition hit industry  

Bharti Airtel, the market leader in telecom space, and the State Bank of India, the largest lender in the country, have announced a deal on Wednesday to offer mobile banking services. Separately, Vodafone Essar, India's third-largest mobile phone company by users, tied up with ICICI Bank, the country's top private-sector lender, to offer mobile banking products.

In Airtel-SBI deal, both will invest Rs 100 crore in the joint venture. SBI will own 51% of the new company and Airtel will have the remaining 49% stake. The investment is in addition to infrastructure, which is already in place. SBI will appoint the chief executive officer of the new organization while the chief operating officer will be from Airtel. While SBI will take care of the banking side of the venture, Airtel will contribute its distribution and technology.

ICICI Bank and Vodafone also have announced the tie-up in a joint press release saying that there was a huge potential for offering mobile banking in rural regions, and that their tie-up will facilitate access to the financially excluded parts of society. The companies did not provide financial details of the pact.

The two agreements have come at a time when India's central bank has been urging banks to expand more into rural and semi-urban areas. Financial inclusion, or taking banking services to the marginal section of the society, is a key objective of current government and the RBI has been working towards it. At present, only about 50,000 villages in India have organized bank branches out of the total 600,000 villages.

However, with telecom revolution in the country reaching the farthest corners, experts have been pointing out that the potential of mobile banking should be tapped for financial inclusion. The RBI had in September issued directive allowing companies with a profit motive to act as business correspondents, which can act as a proxy for a bank branch. The central bank mandates that for a village to be considered covered by banking services, either a bank branch must be present or a business correspondent must be visiting or present in that village.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,752.10; flat compared to its previous closing of 5,751.90, and has touched a high and a low of 5,757.90 and 5,701.05 respectively. The index is currently trading at 5,702.15, down by 49.75 points or 0.86%. There were 7 stocks advancing against 43 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Wipro up by 1.77%, RCom up by 0.87%, Infosys up by 0.48%, HUL up by 0.40% and Dr Reddy up by 0.35%.

The top losers of the index were SAIL down by 5.14%, Tata Motors down by 3.29%, ACC down by 3.19%, Axis Bank down by 2.33% and ONGC was down by 2.30%.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the red; Shanghai Composite was down 26.59 points or 0.94% to 2,801.12, Jakarta Composite was down 38.63 points or 1.08% to 3,526.31, KLSE Composite was down 2.64 points or 0.17% to 1,568.92, Nikkei 225 was down 45.56 points or 0.43% to 10,544.20, Straits Times was down 23.31 points or 0.72% to 3,232.56 and Taiwan Weighted was down 17.32 points or 0.19% to 8,958.26.

On the flip side, Hang Seng was up 52.46 points or 0.22% to 24,291.44 and Seoul Composite was up by 8.25 points or 0.39% to 2,097.73.

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