Markets Give Up Morning Gains, BHEL Down 4.5%

The Indian markets have given up their early gains and are now trading almost at Friday's closing level. Market participants seem to be speculating that the RBI would maintain status quo yet again and keep the key rates unchanged in its meeting tomorrow. Among the sectoral indices, Capital Goods, Power and IT are trading lower in the negative territory, while Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas are trading higher in the green zone.

According to the latest media reports, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has set a fiscal deficit target of 5.3% for the current financial year against the 5.1% forecast by his predecessor Pranab Mukherjee in the Union Budget.

The peer Asian markets are also trading in the negative territory. The Shanghai, Nikkei and Hang Seng are lower in the range of 0.05%-0.4%. Reports say that companies including Honda Motor Co. have reported earnings that have disappointed investors and Hong Kong's developers have slid on a new real estate tax targeting foreign buyers.

Back home, BHEL is the leading index loser trading lower by 4.48% at Rs 231.40 per share after the company's Sept quarter result disappointed the street. Stocks like Sterlite Industries, HUL, Tata Motors, GAIL India and Coal India have lost more than 1% each. Other index heavyweights like HDFC, ICICI Bank, TCS, Infosys and L&T are also trading lower in the negative territory.

On the other hand, Wipro is the leading index gainer, trading higher by 2.63% at Rs 345 per share. Other stocks like Hero MotoCorp, RIL, M&M and Cipla are also in gains. Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank, ITC and SBI are marginally in the green zone.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, is slightly on the weaker end. On the BSE, 1270 shares have declined, 1258 shares have advanced and 149 shares are unchanged.

We expect the markets to remain volatile for the latter part of the day.