Markets trade flat in afternoon session

Indian bourses after surging to life-time high levels in early deals pared most of the gains and were trading flat in afternoon session as profit booking at higher levels dragged the markets lower. Though major indices continued to trade marginally in green on the back of sustained buying by funds and retail investors mainly driven by encouraging fourth quarter earnings by blue-chip companies and positive economic factors. Sector wise, oil and gas index was the top gaining index on BSE up by over 1.68% followed by consumer durable and capital goods indices both up by over 0.50%. However, there was considerable weakness in the IT and technology sector stocks. The broader indices were once again outperforming the benchmarks with both mid and small cap indices were up over 0.25%. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals dipped around 2.3% at nearly Rs 563 after the company said it has lost its appeal to invalidate Abbott Laboratories' TARKA (trandolapril/verapamil hydrochloride) patent. On the other hand, Novartis India has surged around16% to Rs 541 on back of heavy volumes media reports that Eli Lilly and Company proposed to acquire Novartis' animal health business. On global front, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red with Nikkei 225 down by 0.66% and Jakarta Composite down by 0.57% amid concerns over liquidity and weak earnings from major corporate in China. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 6,800 and 22,700 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,420 stocks traded, 1,290 stocks advanced, while 1,014 stocks declined on the BSE. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 22,784.45 up by 19.62 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 22,853.03 and 22,754.51. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.28%, while Small cap index up by 0.51%. The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil and Gas up by 1.68%, Capital Goods up by 1.05%, Consumer Durable up by 0.50%, Realty up by 0.43% and Healthcare up by 0.17%. While, Metal down by 0.96%, FMCG down by 0.54%, Auto down by 0.52%, Power down by 0.19% and Teck down by 0.18% were the losing indices on BSE.    The top gainers on the Sensex were Gail India up by 2.65%, ONGC up by 1.81%, L&T up by 1.41%, RIL up by 1.37% and HDFC Bank up by 1.10%. On the flip side, SSLT down by 2.95%, Hindalco Inds down by 1.26%, Wipro down by 1.21%, Tata Motors down by 1.09% and Tata Steel down by 1.05%. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has lifted an 18-month-old ban on iron ore mining in Goa and allowed industry to extract Iron ore with an annual cap of 20 million tonnes. However, the expert panel will give a final recommendation on annual cap on excavation of iron ore within six months. In addition to the lifting of the court’s ban, mining requires the approvals from the environment ministry and Goa state government. The Supreme Court notified there cannot be a deemed renewal of lease after 2007 of the existing lease deeds emanating from 1962 onwards. Further, there will be no grant of lease for mining around one km of national parks and wild life sanctuaries and directed the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to identify eco-sensitive areas around national parks within six months. Supreme Court added that the government of Goa, India’s top exporting state of the raw ingredient for steel, will formulate a scheme within six months for utilising the funds generated by e-auction. Moreover, the workers on rolls of all mining firms will be paid 50 percent of the wage during the period for which they were out of work. Mining activities in Goa came to a grinding halt since the Supreme Court imposed mining ban in this region. Prior to the ban, Goa exported over 40 million tonnes of iron ore per year, accounting for about 70% of India's total iron ore exports. During the April-February 2014 period, India exported 14.01 million tonnes of iron ore compared to 17.36 million tonnes in the year-ago period, showing a decline of 19.3%. Low domestic production and sluggish demand from China were the leading factors that attributed to decline in shipments. The latest move also came in as a major relief to Indian steel industry facing huge shortage of iron ore, however prevailing slump in prices and slackening demand in China reflect that the period of high profits for iron ore industry is over. The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,820.40 up by 2.75 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 6,838.00 and 6,813. There were only 20 stocks advancing against 30 declining on the index. The top gainers of the Nifty were BPCL up by 4.62%, GAIL up by 2.83%, ONGC up by 1.89%, Reliance up by 1.63% and L&T up by 1.40%. On the flip side, SSLT down by 2.85%, Ambuja Cement down by 2.04%, Indusind Bank down by 1.86%, ACC down by 1.41% and Hindalco down by 1.39% were the major losers on the index. Asian equity indices were trading in red; Nikkei 225 down by 0.66% to 14,416.04, Jakarta Composite down by 0.57% to 4,864.23, Hang Seng down by 0.24% to 22,705.63 and Shanghai Composite down by 0.43% to 2,056.97. While, Straits Times was up by 0.53% to 3,242.79 and Taiwan Weighted up by 0.26% to 8,947.71.