Benchmarks continue weak trade; Sensex below 26000 mark

Indian equity benchmarks continued their weak trade in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters due to absence of any positive upside trigger. The market has risen nearly 25% from start of this year on back of $12 billion fund flow into equities. Last week, the Sensex and Nifty hit successive record highs for three straight days before falling on Friday. Traders were seen piling up positions in Consumer Durables, IT and TECK while selling was witnessed in Realty, Metal and Oil & Gas sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Reliance Power was trading firm after the company acquired the 1800 MW hydroelectric power assets of Manoj Gaur led Jaypee Group worth over Rs 10,000 crore. Bank of Baroda was trading in green surpassing street expectations with the first quarter (April-June) net profit rising 16.6% at Rs 1,362 crore compared to Rs 1,167.9 crore in same quarter last year on account of lower provisions but impacted by lower other income and higher tax expenses. The stock market will remain closed tomorrow i.e. July 29, 2014, on account of ‘Ramzan Id’ holiday.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in green, while the European markets too traded on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 7,750 and 26,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1090:1588 while 104 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25965.88, down by 160.87 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 26181.83 and 25900.25. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.25%, while Small cap index down by 0.52%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.61%, IT up by 0.31% and TECK up 0.19% while, Realty down by 2.43%, Metal down by 1.35%, Oil & Gas down by 0.93%, PSU down by 0.80% and Auto down by 0.71% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.13%, Wipro up by 1.07%, BHEL up by 1.01%, Axis Bank up by 0.64% and Sun Pharma up by 0.60%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 3.16%, Tata Motors down by 1.95%, Tata Steel down by 1.65%, Hindalco Industries down by 1.36% and ICICI Bank down by 1.32% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, exports have remained a core feature of India’s textile industry. Textiles Ministry has set textile export target at $45 billion for the current financial year. In FY14 India ecported textiles worth $40 billion. India’s textile industry exports account for around 10 percent of the country’s export earnings.

In order to support the industry’s exports, the government has taken various measures such as Focus Market Scheme, Market Linked, Focus Product Scheme and Duty Drawback Scheme. Domestic textile players are also exempted on import duty on the import of capital Goods under EPCG and raw material under Advance Authorisation Scheme. Further, interest subvention was enhanced to 3 percent from 2 percent under Interest Subvention Scheme. With the government various initiatives, India’s global market share in textile exports increased to 5.2 percent in 2013 from 3 percent in 2002.

Textile industry contributes around 4 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP) and nearly 14 percent to industrial production besides providing direct employment to over 45 million people. The present market size of the industry stands at around $90 billion, which is expected to touch $220 billion mark by 2020. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7747.20, down by 43.25 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 7799.90 and 7722.65. There were 17 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech up by 2.08%, Cairn India up by 2.04%, PNB up by 1.66%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.24% and BHEL up by 1.04%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 3.45%, DLF down by 3.35%, Ambuja Cement down by 2.74%, Ultratech Cement down by 2.38% and Grasim Industries down by 1.93% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; with KOSPI Index adding 0.74%; Shanghai Composite rallying 2.41%; Nikkei 225 gaining 0.46%; Hang Seng advancing 0.88%. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted was declining by 0.20%.

Indonesia market was closed today on account of ‘Idul Fitri’ festival holiday while Malaysia and Singapore market were closed today on account of ‘Hari Raya Puasa’ holiday.

The European markets were trading mostly in green; France’s CAC 40 added 0.44%, UK’s FTSE 100 was up by 0.13% while, Germany’s DAX was down by 0.05%.