Markets Trim Losses On NTP 2012

After extended their losses in the late afternoon trades, the Indian markets cut some of these in the last hour of trade. This was on the back the new telecom policy that proposes to abolish roaming charges on mobile phones and to allow users to retain the same number across the country. Under the National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012, it has been proposed to de-link the spectrum from licences, reduce the number of licences, give the industry liberal merger and acquisition norms and remove the burden of roaming charges from consumers.

The markets remained under pressure for most of the session on the back of weak global cues and weak GDP data for the Mar 2012 quarter. The GDP grew by 5.3%, recording the eighth successive quarterly decline and the slowest pace in 9 years. For the full year FY12, the economy grew at 6.5%. The rupee today depreciated again to the 56 levels.

The European markets continue to trade in the positive territory on the back of some buying at the lower levels. This comes after the successive downfall witnessed in the last few trading sessions. However, the looming debt crisis in the region, which is now spreading to Spain, is undermining the investors' mood.

Further, the Asian markets have closed on a negative note over concerns on the weak global markets and lower industrial production numbers in Japan.

Dow Jones Futures is currently trading 59 points or 0.47% up at 12440, indicating a positive sentiment in the US markets.

Back home, among the BSE sectoral indices, Realty, IT and Teck turned positive and closed with leading gains of 1%, 0.35% and 0.31% respectively. However, the Auto, Banking and CD stocks continued to face selling pressure and closed down by 1.96%, 0.87% and 0.81% respectively.

In individual stocks, ICICI Bank declined by over 3% as the stock turned ex-dividend. Jaiprakash Associates rose by 3.16% to Rs 62.50 today after the company's announcement that it will raise funds up to USD 500 million through FCCBs and ECBs.

PTC India declined by 2.21% to Rs 55.25 after the company posted muted numbers for the quarter. Its net sales declined by 28.3% to Rs 1443 crore and the net profit fell by 8.4% to Rs 30.05 crore.

Investors should watch out for stocks like McNally Bharat Engineering and MphasiS, which are going to post their quarterly results tomorrow. These stocks may see a price movement.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, was negative for today. Out of the 3037 stocks traded on the BSE, 1577 declined, 1348 advanced and 112 remained unchanged.

We expect the markets to remain volatile with a negative bias for tomorrow, as the slowdown in the economy will undermine the investors' sentiment.