Benchmarks add losses; Nifty slips below 8100 mark

Indian bourses adding losses, continued to trade in red in the late morning session, with the Sensex losing over 125 points and Nifty falling below the 8100 level, as investors turned cautious and booked profits at higher levels. Sentiment on the street weakened on a report of World Economic Forum (WEF), which has ranked India among the worst-ranked countries when it comes to taxation and inflation burden on economy. Some weakness also came from losing trend of other Asian bourses and geopolitical tensions. The markets were in over-bought position following recent record-setting spree on robust capital inflows and participants preferred to lock in gains at current levels, pulling down the key indices from record highs. However, losses remain capped as RBI has permitted ECB lenders for extending loans in Indian Rupees to domestic businesses. Some support also came in from reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1288.57 crore on September 03, 2014.

Barring FMCG and Healthcare, all other BSE sectoral indices were trading in the red. Among them, Realty and Consumer Durables indices were losing most, followed by Power and Metal. Among the broader markets, BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were trading in line with the large counterparts and are trading lower by 1.02% and 1.26% respectively. In scrip specific development, shares of JP Associates have slumped by over 12% after Jaypee Infra Ventures sold over 13 million shares of the company on the National Stock Exchange. Besides, shares of DLF were down as much as 5% after the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday set aside the Haryana government’s decision to allot 350 acres of land in Wazirabad, Gurgaon, to the company in 2010. On the other hand, shares of Marico Kaya Enterprises rose after RBI permitted foreign investors to buy up to 40% of the paid-up capital of the company.

On global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in the red as investors awaited central bank decision in Europe. Besides, US stock markets closed mostly lower, pulled down by a fall in Apple and other technology companies. Back home, the rupee strengthened by two paise to 60.47 against the dollar in early trade on sustained foreign funds inflow amid increased selling of the American currency by exporters and banks. The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2339 stocks traded, 774 stocks advanced, while 1500 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27013.76 down by 126.18 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 27169.12 and 26995.78. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.02%, while Small cap index down by 1.26%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 0.43% and FMCG up by 0.34% while, Realty down by 5.12%, Consumer Durables down by 2.41%, Power down by 1.64%, Metal down by 1.62% and Infrastructure down by 1.43% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 1.25%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.87%, ITC up by 0.69%, HDFC up by 0.66% and Sun Pharma Industries up by 0.64%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 4.21%, Hindalco down by 3.63%, Tata Power down by 2.28%, Tata Steel down by 2.05% and Tata Motors down by 1.46% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, putting pressure on the new government’s growth drive, Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF) in its annual Global Competitiveness report of 144 countries has ranked India at 133rd in terms of inflation, 130th for taxes and 131st for starting a business. Not only this, the global agency’s report has placed India at 71st position in global competitiveness list, the lowest among BRICS countries, weighed down by challenging economic conditions for most part of the past year.

According to the report, India's slide in the competitiveness rankings began in 2009, when its economy was still growing at 8.5 percent. WEF has said that the country has declined in most areas assessed by the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) since 2007, most strikingly in institutions, business sophistication, financial market development. The most striking part was the country’s rank as low as 131 in terms of number of procedures required to start a business, implying that the country lags far behind its global peers in terms of ease of doing business.

Besides, India has been ranked at 125th place in terms of business cost of terrorism and at 98th in terms of business cost of crime and violence. The country was placed 102nd rank. In terms of electricity and telephony infrastructure it at 118 and quality of electricity supply at 103.

As per the Global Competitiveness Report 2014-15, Switzerland is the most competitive economy, followed by Singapore and United States, while China, which has improved its position by one place to 28th spot, leads the BRICS grouping.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8,071.55 down by 43.05 points or 0.53% after trading in a range of 8,114.80 and 8,065.75. There were 12 stocks advancing against 38 declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 1.10%, Asian Paints up by 1.07%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.97%, Lupin up by 0.96 and Hero MotoCorp up by 0.95%. On the flip side, DLF down by 7.82%, Jindal Steel & Power down by 4.83%, BHEL down by 4.12%, Hindalco down by 3.51% and PNB down by 2.53% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the red; Nikkei 225 dropped by 0.27%, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI declined by 0.03%, Taiwan Weighted slipped by 0.52%, Jakarta Composite down by 0.14%, Straits Times was decreased 0.33% and Hang Seng was down by 0.22%. On the flip side KOSPI Index gained by 0.23% and Shanghai Composite was up by 0.29%.