Benchmarks extend losses; trade near intra-day low level

Indian bourses added losses to continue weak trade in the late afternoon session, hovering near intra-day low level on account of profit booking in frontline line blue-chip stocks amid weak Asian cues. Domestic sentiment was dampened in the absence of any directional cues and all the major sectoral indices except auto were trading in red. Emergence of fresh selling in consumer durables, realty and metal sector stocks dragged the market down. Investors’ sentiments took a hit as private sector activity in emerging market economies fell for the fourth consecutive month in March. The broader indices too were trading in-line with benchmarks with both mid cap and small cap indices were trading down by over 0.40%. On stock specific movement, the street was abuzz with Sun Pharma’s $4-billion acquisition of Ranbaxy. Ranbaxy was down over 5% to around Rs 437, while Sun Pharma was the top gainer on BSE up by around 1.74% to Rs 581.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) was trading lower by nearly 3% at Rs 179 after the company said net profit for FY14 more than halved to Rs 3,228 crore on account of low volumes and challenges in the domestic power sector. Housing Development and Infrastructure  (HDIL), extending its Friday’s 16% rally, was trading higher by 6% to around Rs 73.75 after Nomura Singapore Limited acquired nearly 1 percentage point stake in the Mumbai-based real estate firm through an open market transaction.

On global front, Asian equity indices were trading in red with Straits Times was down by 0.51% and Nikkei 225 down by 1.64%. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 6,700 and 22,300 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 1,856 stocks traded, 830 stocks advanced, while 932 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 22,259.61 down by 99.89 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 22,481.62 and 22,224.66. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.61%, while Small cap index down by 0.40%.

The losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables down by 1.71%, Realty down by 1.47%, Metal down by 0.83%, FMCG down by 0.69% and Bankex down by 0.61%. While, Auto marginally up by 0.01% was the only gaining index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 1.74%, M&M up by 1.01%, Gail India up by 0.90%, Wipro up by 0.52% and SSLT up by 0.45%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 2.83%, Cipla down by 2.08%, ICICI Bank down by 1.83%, Hindalco Inds down by 1.53% and Dr Reddy’s Lab down by 1.47%.

Meanwhile, Allaying industry concerns over free trade agreements (FTA) with other nations, Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher has asserted that the mega free trade agreement - Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is an important pact for India and industry should equip itself to avail the opportunities which would emerge from this agreement.

RCEP is an ASEAN-centred proposal for a regional free trade area, which would initially include the ten ASEAN member states and those countries which have existing FTAs with ASEAN – Australia, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea and New Zealand. India has so far entered into FTAs with Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Asean and South Asia. RCEP negotiations were launched in Phnom Penh in November 2012 and would be implementation by the end of 2015.

Commerce Secretary stated that RECP would help the country to enhance exports and to avail the opportunities, the government in its forthcoming foreign trade policy (FTP) for the period 2014-19 would focus more on areas like standards and branding of products. Rajeev Kher also asked all the departments to get involved in the process of enhancing exports as most of the departments and not focused for exports except Department of Commerce and information technology. He further added that developed countries such as the US and Europe are coming out with new rules and norms which could acts as non-trade barriers (NTBs) for exports. During April-February FY'14, value of exports increased by 4.79% to $282.78 billion as against $269.86 billion in the same period of previous fiscal year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,665.50 down by 28.85 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 6,725.15 and 6,658.10. There were only 18 stocks advancing against 32 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 2.82%, Sun Pharma up by 1.83%, Ambuja Cement up by 1.70%, Grasim up by 1.36% and NMDC up by 1.21%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 5.48%, DLF down by 3.49%, BHEL down by 2.81%, IDFC down by 2.32% and Cipla down by 2.18% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in red; Hang Seng down by 0.55% to 22,385.31, Taiwan Weighted down by 0.14% to 8,876.45, Nikkei 225 down by 1.64% to 14,816.44 and Straits Times was down by 0.51% to 3,195.93. While,  Jakarta Composite up by 1.28% to 4,920.28.