Benchmarks cut short losses; Auto stocks aid

Benchmarks after skidding over in early deals have now cut short some of it losses on the back of the FII Inflows, which have prevented the sharp drop of the local bourses. Foreign funds have bought shares worth Rs 7585.4 crore in the last six sessions of June, as risk appetite got a boost from some relief over Greece's debt situation. However, local bourses are in limbo owing to the lack of supportive global leads as the US markets were shut on Monday on account of the Independence Day holiday. Meanwhile, Asian markets were subdued after ratings agency Moody's said the outlook for China's banks may turn negative. Back home, slight mending was done by the stocks belonging to the Auto, Metal and Consumer Durables counters. Auto counter is witnessing maximum investor traction on the back of strong June sales numbers. M&M being the top gainer on the Sensex, captured gains close to 1.5%, while Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors and Maruti were all trading higher, gaining in the range of 0.50-1.25%. On the flip side, Realty, Power and FMCG stocks were the one's that were languishing at the bottom. Realty stocks finally saw profit booking after two straight days of big gains, with DLF topping the chart of the losers, declining close to 1.50%. The 30 scrip sensitive index -Sensex- too losing over 50 points was close to its 18700 level, while the 50 share index- Nifty-was gyrating around its 5600 mark. Also, trading cautiously were the broader indices, with midcap index losing over 0.05%, while smallcap index registering gains over 0.15%. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which outnumbered declines in the ratio of 1134:1067, while 77 shares remained unchanged. Meanwhile, India's services sector picked up steam in June, with activity rebounding from a 20-month-low in May as new orders rose sharply and costs climbed at a slower pace, a survey showed on Tuesday. The seasonally adjusted HSBC Markit Business Activity Index based on a survey of 400 firms, rose to 56.1 in June after hitting 55.0 in May, while expectations also soared.

The stocks that are buzzing hard in the trade include, BHEL which is the top loser, falling over 2% on reports that the Cabinet is likely to give a nod for disinvestment in the company soon. Among other stocks, Idea Cellular fell 3% after the High Court imposed Rs 1 crore worth penalties on the company. Meanwhile, Tata Communications rose 4 per cent after the Supreme Court nod for the sale of a part of 774 acres of VSNL land.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18,748.00, down by 66.48 points or 0.35%. The index has touched a high and low of 18,837.88 and 18,721.56 respectively. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 declines on the index.

The broader indices too were trading on a mixed note; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.08% while, Small cap index was up by 0.21%.

On the BSE Sectoral front, Auto up by 0.96%, Metal up by 0.29% and Consumer Durable up by 0.02% were the only gainers; while Realty down by 1.14%, Power down by 0.86%, FMCG down by 0.72%, CG down by 0.51% and Bankex down by 0.49% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were M&M up by 1.65%, Tata Steel up by 1.20%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.15%, Tata Motors up by 0.99% and Maruti Suzuki was up by 0.78%.

On the flip side, BHEL down by 2.32%, RCom down by 1.74%, DLF down by 1.46%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.33% and Reliance Infra down by 1.09% were the top losers on the index.

Meanwhile, India's seafood export fell by 4.5% to $146 million in the month of May. This moderation in export has come due to less demand from its major markets such as European Union and Japan, both the nation accounts for almost 46% of India's Marine exports. During May 2010, the seafood exports stood at $153 million, according to the data released by the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA).

Due to fragile economic conditions demand, from European economy is not growing, an MPEDA official said, European economy is still fragile and demand is yet to pick up, further adding he said. Besides, exporters are getting less number of orders from Japanese market due to the occurrence of earthquake and tsunami.

Of the India's total marine exports, European nations have the largest share of 26% followed by Japan 20% and United States 17%. During the April and May of 2011-12, marine exports dropped 4.3% to $316 million compared to the same period of last financial year.

During last financial year, India's export of marine products grew by a remarkable 25.5% to $2.6 billion in 2010-11 compared to the last fiscal. Country's seafood exports comprise black tiger shrimp, fresh water prawn shrimp, frozen versatile fish, frozen skip jack and frozen squid and the shipments are mostly from coastal states like Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,624.40, down by 26.10 points or 0.46%. The index has touched a high and low of 5,659.85 and 5,621.00 respectively. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were SAIL up by 2.13%, M&M up by 1.49%, Tata Motors up by 1.15%, Tata Steel up by 1.13% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.95%.

BHEL down by 2.41%, Power Grid Corporation of Indian down by 2.04%, IDFC down by 1.96%, RCom down by 1.84% and DLF down by 1.54% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite declined 0.10%, Hang Seng descended 0.03%, Jakarta Composite slid 0.32%, and Straits Times skid 0.69%.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 gained 0.07%, KLSE Composite was up by 0.03%, Seoul Composite added 0.56% and Taiwan Weighted was trading flat.

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