Global cues weigh down Indian markets

Mon, 5 Sep 09:30 am

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Asian stock markets have opened the day on a weak note. Stock markets in South Korea (down 3.1%), Hong Kong (down 2.2%), China (down 1.8%) and Japan (down 1.7%) are trading in the red. However, markets in Indonesia (up 1.2%) are trading in the green. The Indian stock markets have opened the day on a weak note. Stocks in the realty and Information Technology (IT) sectors are leading the losses.

The BSE-Sensex is trading down by 150 points (0.7%) and the NSE-Nifty is down by around 42 points (0.8%). Midcap and small cap stocks are trading in the red as well, with the BSE Midcap and BSE Small cap indices down by 0.5% and 0.3% respectively. The rupee is trading at 45.77 to the US dollar.

Capital Goods stocks have opened the day on a weak note with Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) and Areva T&D trading in the red. Public sector iron ore miner, National Mineral Dev Corp (NMDC) has entered into a contract with BHEL. This contract is for supplying raw material handling system (RMHS) package to its new 3 m tonnes per annum (mtpa) steel plant. The integrated steel plant is being constructed at Nagarnar in the state of Chhattisgarh. The RMHS will have the capacity to lift 10 mtpa of raw material and will thus cater to many units of the steel plant. NMDC's management has stated that the Nagarnar steel plant will be the fastest moving steel project in the country. BHEL's management said that the ISG group at Bangalore will complete the job within the period of 30 months. The land acquisition for the steel plant has already been completed in August 2010.

Banking stocks have opened the day on a weak note with Bank of India and Bank of Baroda trading in the red. The finance ministry has directed Indian public sector banks to make public details of unclaimed deposits. Over the last few decades, the number of unclaimed accounts has increased to 10.3 million. At the same time the unclaimed corpus has grown to a whopping Rs 17 bn. State Bank of India (SBI) and its associates top the list with unclaimed deposits close to Rs 2.8 bn. So as to encourage account holders to reclaim their funds and to also ensure a greater level of transparency, the government has asked the PSU (Public Sector Undertakings) banks to display a list of inoperative accounts and the names of the account holders on their websites. As per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) rules, a savings bank account is classified as an inoperative account two years after the last entry for interest is credited to it. Essentially, a bank account is classified as inoperative or dormant either after the death of the account holder or when an account is not maintained or business transacted for more than two years. The other banks that top the list of banks with unclaimed deposits after SBI include Canara Bank (Rs 2746 m), Union Bank (Rs 1636 m), ICICI Bank (Rs 742 m) and ING Vysya (Rs 302 m)