Indian equity indices have extended the listless performance in the afternoon session as the indices are moving only in the sideways direction around previous closing levels. Though the benchmarks have traded above the neutral line for most part of the session, yet there are little signs of a bounce back as cautious investors are hesitant to open long positions ahead of the earnings announcement of the flag bearer of capital goods industry Larsen and Toubro amid growing uncertainties over the stability of local markets. Buying was largely seen in the badly slaughtered Oil and Gas stocks which shaved off around a massive 5% points in last two sessions on fears that government will raise prices of other petroleum products soon. The information technology majors like TCS and Infosys, and FMCG bellwethers like ITC and HUL too are preventing the benchmarks from drifting into the red territory while the index heavyweight Reliance Industries had made its presence felt after surging over a percent point. Moreover, fertilizer stocks like Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers, National Fertilizers, Nagarjuna fertilisers and FACT spurted on emergence of reports that fertiliser companies may be allowed to hike maximum retail prices of Di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) by over Rs 600 per tonne as the fertiliser ministry is planning to move a Cabinet proposal in this regard. However, the high beta realty counter is witnessing another forgettable session languishing at the bottom of the BSE sectoral space as like DLF and HDIL have shrunk by 1.63% and 2.44% respectively. Meanwhile, leads from the Asian markets remained mixed while the European counterparts on the other hand have gone on to begin their session on a sanguine note with smart gains.
Back home, the broader markets failed to keep their heads above the water and are trading in the negative terrain, underperforming their larger peers by quite a margin. The midcap index eased 0.44% and the smallcap index fell 0.27% points. The market breadth on the BSE was in favor of declines in the ratio of 1025:1405 while 131 scrips remained unchanged.
The BSE Sensex added 38.31 points or 0.21% at 18,124.51. The index touched a high and a low of 18,198.45 and 18,057.82 respectively.
The BSE Mid-cap index shed 0.44% and Small-cap index fell 0.27%.
On the BSE sectoral front, Oil and Gas up 1.06%, FMCG up 0.53%, IT up 0.52%, Teck up 0.36% and PSU up 0.19% were the major gainers.
While, Realty down 1.51%, Power down 0.62%, Capital Goods down 0.58%, Healthcare down 0.48% and Metal down 0.24% were the major laggards in the BSE sectoral space.
The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up 1.38%, RIL up 1.35%, M&M up 1.18%, Bajaj Auto up 0.93% and ITC up 0.90%.
On the flip side R Com down 2.26%, Tata Power down 2.06%, Hero Honda down 1.99%, DLF down 1.74% and R Infra down 1.18% were the major losers on the index.
Meanwhile, the India - ASEAN free trade agreement (FTA), which is currently restricted to trading in goods only, is expected to widen its scope as negotiations for a similar agreement for services are currently under way. According to Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) - Deloitte White Paper, the FTA is likely to open up a range of business avenues and projects for the Indian companies and strengthen the trade dependence between India and ASEAN.
The White Paper underscored that opportunity in construction sector are enormous for Indian companies and they can seriously pursue opportunities in the construction related activities such as construction of bridges, canals, roads, school buildings, sports facilities and water-treatment plants.
The paper also highlights that Asean countries would also provide considerable business avenues in machinery, equipment, appliances apparatus and associated products, office equipment, computers and supplies, instruments and appliances, industrial process control equipment, optical instruments, and horological instruments industry/services categories. India also stands to gain in sectors such as medical supplies, telecommunication, radio, television and communication equipment, textiles, handicrafts and chemicals from its trade with the Asean economies.
Moreover, optimum gains of the FTA, which was signed on August 13, 2009, and came into effect from January 1, 2011, can only be realized when the trade agreement gets ratified by all the ten members of the Asean. So far, only eight nations viz., Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar have ratified the agreement. Though Cambodia and Philippines are yet to ratify the deal, both have indicated that they would implement their deal in the next of couple of months.
The India ASEAN FTA which was signed in Bangkok with Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, is expected to be in place with all member countries by 2016. The FTA collectively covers a market of nearly 1.8 billion people and proposes to gradually slash tariffs for over 4,000 product lines. The trade between the two stood at about $44 billion in 2009-10. The S&P CNX Nifty added 6.75 points or 0.12% at 5,427.35. The index touched high and low of 5,452.60 and 5,411.25, respectively.
The top gainers on the Nifty were GAIL up 2.90%, IDFC up 2.44%, Reliance up 1.28%, TCS up 1.12% and M&M up 1.01%.
On the other hand, Hero Honda down 2.27%, Grasim down 2.19%, Tata Power down 2.14%, R Com down 2.09% and DLF down 1.91% were the major losers on the index.
On the Asian front, Hang Seng up 0.51%, Jakarta Composite added 0.49%, KLSE Composite rose 0.22% and Straits Times surged 0.90%.
On the other hand, Shanghai Composite declined 0.41%, Nikkei 225 fell 0.43%, Seoul Composite plummeted 1.89% and Taiwan Weighted shaved off 0.58%.
The European markets have opened an optimistic note as the France's CAC 40 gained 0.65%, Germany's DAX amassed 0.64% and London's FTSE 100 jumped 0.93%.
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