Local equity markets continue to trade choppy

The local equity markets continue to trade choppy with positive bias in late afternoon session despite the positive cues from the global markets. In the mean time, the local traders have also expressed their concern on the rising crude oil prices which may lead to inflation pressure in India. However, all other Asian markets settled in the green while European markets and US index futures were trading positive. Back home, in BSE sectoral space Metal, Healthcare (HC), Oil & Gas, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)  and Bankex  counters were showing some buying interest while Realty, Information Technology (IT), TECk, Consumer Durables (CD) and Capital Goods (CG) stocks were witnessing selling pressure. Oil marketing companies like HPCL, BPCL and IOC were under selling pressure as London Brent crude was inching closer to $116 a barrel on Middle East tensions. The broader  markets were trading lower; the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices lost 0.08% and 0.11%, respectively. The market breadth on the BSE was in favour of declines in the ratio of 1532:1218 while 111 scrips remained unchanged.

Ranbaxy declined over 4% on reports that Mylan has sued US FDA for Lipitor. The company is seeking to block Ranbaxy's lipitor copy. Lipitor was estimated to add $ 500-600 million to Ranbaxy's sales.

Tata Steel trades higher as the company has successfully completed the issuance of perpetual hybrid securities worth Rs 1,500 crore.

Tyre stocks are trading lower on account of higher rubber prices which continued their recovery mood. Rubber prices rebounded on easing of demand concerns caused by Japan earthquake and closure of automobile plants and market returned back to fundamentals. Natural rubber continues to be supported by higher prices of crude oil and tight supplies in producing countries.

The BSE Sensex advanced 33.44 points or 0.19% at 17,912.25. The index touched a high and a low of 18,007.73 and 17,792.17, respectively.

The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices lost 0.08% and 0.11%, respectively.

In the BSE sectoral space, Metal up 0.49%, Healthcare (HC) up 0.47%, Oil & Gas up 0.38%, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) up 0.30% and Bankex up 0.25% were the major gainers; while Realty down 0.70%, Information Technology (IT) down 0.42%, TECk down 0.27%, Consumer Durables (CD) down 0.13% and Capital Goods (CG) down 0.04% were the only losers in the BSE sectoral indices.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Jindal Steel up 2.48%, Tata Steel up 1.53%, HDFC up 1.50% M&M up 1.19% and Sterlite Inds up 1.07%.

On the flip side, Hindalco Inds down 2.38%, Cipla down 1.40%, Hero Honda down 1.10%, Maruti Suzuki down 0.93% and Wipro down 0.93% were the major losers on the index.

Three persons, including two former directors of Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER), a central government undertaking, have been arrested on charges of irregularities in the supply of modems to the Rs 1,000-crore Akash missile project.

Cases were filed on March 18, 2011 under different sections against former directors of SAMEER, S Karunakaran and KR Kini, after the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) had filed cases under different sections of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA). P Rathinavel, director, Sam Shin Precision, Chennai and Bangalore-based Wave Tech Electronics, has been arrested.

SAMEER is an autonomous institution for Research and Development under the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of India, fully funded by the Ministry and deals with sensitive defence related and other projects.

As per the case, Karunakaran had abused his official position during 2005-2009 and showed undue favour to Sam Shin Precision, and awarded the contract of mass production of Integrated Radio Line Modems (IRLMs) to be used in Akash Missile Programme by Ministry of Defence, eliminating the other eligible government and reputed private companies.

Akash is India's medium range surface-to-air missile developed by the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and the Bharat Electronics (BEL). Akash has certain unique features like mobility, all-the-way-powered flight till target interception, multiple target handling, digitally-coded command guidance and fully automatic operation.

The S&P CNX Nifty added 16.90 points or 0.31% at 5,390.60. The index touched high of 5413.30 and a low of 5348.20, respectively.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Sun Pharma up 2.45%, Jindal Steel up 2.42%, SAIL up 2.08%, Cairn up 1.75% and HDFC up 1.56%.

On the other hand, Ranbaxy Lab down 6.23%, Hindalco Inds down 2.21%, Hero Honda up 1.17%, Cipla up 1.14% and Ambuja Cements up 1.02% were the major losers on the index.

The other Asian markets settled in the green. Shanghai Composite added 0.10%, Hang Seng soared 1.73%, Jakarta Composite advanced 0.71%, KLSE Composite rose 0.33%, Seoul Composite gained 1.13%, Straits Times advanced 1.63% and Taiwan Weighted jumped 0.87%. Stock markets in Japan remain closed on account of Spring Equinox Day holiday.

European markets were trading in green; FTSE surged 1.11%, DAX climbed 2.39% and CAC 40 gained 1.76%.

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