Benchmarks extend early losses; trade near intra-day low level

Indian bourses extended early losses trading near intra-day low level in afternoon session as capital outflows and sustained profit- booking by retail investors amidst weak global cues following signs of deepening Ukraine crisis dampened the sentiments. Most of the sectoral indices were trading in red with IT and teck as the top losing indices trading down by over 1.20%. Sharp selling witnessing in IT stocks dragged the major indices lower as global IT giant Cognizant scaled down its annual revenue growth estimate citing weakness at certain clients and long sales cycles for certain large deals. Further the stocks of bank, realty and capital goods also under pressure. Selling was broad based with both mid cap and small cap indices were trading down by over 0.30%. Bucking the trend, shares of companies engaged in railways-related businesses rallied after the Cabinet opened up the railway infrastructure segment to foreign firms. Further, investors were also seen piling up position in oil and gas, metal and FMCG stocks. Stock specific movement, Bharti Infratel has dipped around 6% to Rs 255 after the offer-for-sale (OFS) for up to 45 million shares to comply with SEBI’s minimum public shareholding norm of 25% opened today.

On global front, Asian equity indices were trading in red with Hang Seng down by 0.53% and Shanghai Composite down by 0.81% after Australia’s unemployment rate unexpectedly climbed to a 12-year high of 6.4 per cent and as tensions mounted over Ukraine. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 7,700 and 26,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2,485 stocks traded, 1,087 stocks advanced, while 1,304 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25,584.15 down by 81.12 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 25,715.36 and 25,559.93. 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 0.45%, while Small cap index down by 0.34%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil and Gas up by 0.38%, Metal up by 0.12%, and FMCG up by 0.06%. On the flip side, IT down by 1.36%, Teck down by 1.20%, Realty down by 0.96%, Infrastructure down by 0.62% and Healthcare down by 0.53% were the losing indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 1.25%, ONGC up by 0.66%, BHEL up by 0.46%, HDFC Bank up by 0.35% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.35%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.62%, Infosys down by 1.56%, Sun Pharma down by 1.10%, Axis Bank down by 0.64% and Gail India down by 0.63% were the top losers on the BSE.  Meanwhile, providing more powers to capital markets watchdog SEBI to deal with fraudulent collective schemes, Lok Sabha passes the crucial Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2014 aimed at tackling the ponzi menace. The Bill, 2014, has been brought in the backdrop of lakhs of small investors being duped by fraudulent investment schemes, like in the alleged Saradha scam.

The Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2014 will allow SEBI search and seizure powers and seek information and call records from even those firms not directly related to securities market. However, the market regulator will have to take approval from designated court in Mumbai before using these powers.

Further, the government is also of the view that financial inclusion will help to check the  menace of ponzi scheme. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to launch the Financial Inclusion Mission on Independence Day. About 60 percent of the population in India does not have bank accounts and the Financial Inclusion Mission envisages making two bank accounts per family mandatory. The mission envisages giving a Rs 5,000 overdraft facility to around 8 crore new account holders and credit guarantee fund will provide a cushion to banks and cover defaults in overdraft accounts.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7,649.05 down by 23 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 7,686.70 and 7,640.80. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 declining on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Jindal Steel up by 3.57%, Tata Steel up by 1.28%, ACC up by 0.84%, Power Grid up by 0.82% and BPCL up by 0.81%. On the flip side, HCL Tech down by 2.25%, Bank of Baroda down by 1.80%, PNB down by 1.65%, TCS down by 1.64% and Infosys down by 1.62% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in red; Hang Seng down by 0.53% to 24,455.01, Shanghai Composite down by 0.81% to 2,199.73, Jakarta Stock Price Index down by 0.21% to 5,047.70, Straits Times Index down by 0.29% to 3,310.24 and Taiwan Weighted down by 0.14% to 9,131.44. While, Nikkei 225 up by 0.41% to 15,221.65