Dull markets trade flat with negative bias in trade

Local equity markets remain lackluster and are trading flat with negative bias on lack of positive cues from global peers. High crude oil prices, rising inflation, investigation into various scams and possible rate hike by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is also adding to the jittery back home. Other key Asian markets are trading mostly in the negative terrain today and US index futures too are down in screen trade at this point of time. Back on the Dalal-Street, capital goods stocks continue to trade weak. Consumer durables, banking, auto and information technology counters are among the other notable losers. Fast moving consumer goods, healthcare and oil & gas are up on buying support. Public sector undertakings and realty segments are also moving higher. In the broader markets, the midcap index is flat and up by 0.05% while the smallcap index is down by 0.32%. The market breadth was negative; losers outpaced the gainers in a ratio of 1338:1132 while 95 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex slipped 16.27 points or 0.08% at 19,275.75. The index has touched a high of 19,356.50 and a low of 19,212.63, respectively.

The BSE Mid cap index gained 0.05%; while BSE Small cap index lost 0.32%. 

The top losers on the BSE sectoral space were Capital Goods (CG) down 1.06%, Consumer Durables (CD) down 0.72%, Bankex down 0.70%, Auto down 0.19% and Information Technology (IT) down 0.17%.

On the flip side, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) up 1.47%, Healthcare (HC) up 1.01%, Oil & Gas up 0.64%, Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) up 0.21% and Realty up 0.04% were the only gainers on the BSE sectoral space.

The top gainers of the Sensex were HUL up 2.46%, ITC up 1.49%, RCom up 1.25%, Maruti Suzuki up 1.17% and JP Associates up 1%.

On the flip side, Hero Honda down 1.54%, HDFC Bank down 1.47%, L&T down 1.34%, Jindal Steel down 1.27% and M&M down 1.18% were the major losers on the index.

With the positions of the developed and emerging nations continuing to remain wide apart at the Doha round of multilateral trading treaty under World Trade Organisation (WTO), the US has put the onus of completion of the deal on emerging nations including India, China and Brazil.

The US trade representative Ron Kirk said on Thursday that the largest economy in world was hoping for positive contribution from the emerging economies in order to bridge the gaps in Doha negotiations and seal the deal by next year. He however conceded that at present the gaps between respective positions of the US and Europe on one hand and emerging and developing economies on the other hand were too large to be easily bridged.

'Doha is undergoing a challenging period. Reports and texts issued last week in Geneva confirm what we and others have been saying that the gaps are large after more than two years of dedicated efforts to narrow them through bilateral negotiations with key partners,' the US trade representative said. He added that emerging countries should recognize that they will have to bear greater responsibility in ensuring a successful deal in proportion with their increasing economic clout.

The biggest difference on position of two countries comes from sectoral negotiations and farm sector access. There was a clause in Doha round negotiations that there would be separate negotiations between the US and emerging countries including India and China regarding cutting down the tariffs for import of manufactured products at sectoral levels. This however was supposed to be a voluntary negotiation between the two sides and was not to be made mandatory under the final lines of Doha deal.

Now the US wants emerging nations to first give a commitment to mandatorily participate in the sectoral negotiations before it would agree with the already negotiated farm and NAMA (non-agricultural market access) agreements. Emerging nations while have offered to participate in sectoral negotiations voluntarily, they continue to oppose any mandatory clause in this regard to be introduced into the Doha deal agreement. Similarly, the issue of huge farm subsidies of developed countries and restricted access to farm commodities by emerging countries also remain key issues where agreement seems very difficult.

The S&P CNX Nifty was flat and down by 1.80 points or 0.03% at 5783.65.  The index has touched a high and a low of 5804.30 and 5764.50, respectively.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sun Pharma up 3.18%, HUL up 2.65%, Ambuja Cement up 2.55%, Siemens up 1.94% and Ranbaxy up 1.82%

On the flip side, Axis Bank down 1.74%, Hero Honda down 1.62%, Jindal Steel down 1.43%, HDFC Bank down 1.43% and HDFC down 1.37% were the major losers on the index.

Rest of the Asian markets were trading mostly in the red. Hang Seng lost 0.31%, Jakarta Composite declined 0.29%, KLSE Composite slipped 0.14%, Straits Times shed 0.34%, Seoul Composite dropped 0.94% and Taiwan Weighted dipped 0.36%; while Shanghai Composite gained 0.22% and Nikkei 225 surged 1.63% 

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