Benchmarks continue to trade in red in late morning session

Indian bourses continued to trade in red in the late morning session as funds and retail investors booked profits after yesterday's gains. Besides, a weak trend on other Asian markets following overnight sell-off in the US markets also triggered selling by participants. Moreover, Some Investors were cautious ahead of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data for the month of August which will be out on later in the day. However, rally in Infosys on the back of good second quarter earnings, avoided further dip in the benchmark index. Barring the IT and TECK  indices all other sectoral indices were in the red with Metal index declining the most down 2.60% followed by Auto, FMCG and Capital Goods indices among others.  In scrip specific development, Kesoram Industries declined after the company disowned the news about an imminent takeover of the company's tyre business by Kumar Mangalam Birla. On the other hand, T D Power Systems has surged after HDFC Mutual Fund acquired additional stake in the company through open market transaction.

On global front, Asian stock markets declined after weak export data from Germany stoked fears that economic slowdown in Europe could depress global economic growth. Besides, concerns about global economic growth hit oil prices hard, with Brent oil prices falling to $89.24 a barrel, its lowest level since mid-2012.

Back home, shares of information technology (IT) companies are trading firm in otherwise weak market after the Infosys has reported a better-than-expected consolidated net profit growth for the quarter ended September 2014 and announced a 1:1 bonus issue. Besides, Oil marketing companies such as BPCL, HPCL and IOC all traded with over a percent gains as the Brent crude fell below the $90 dollar a barrel mark for the first time in two years on concerns over weakening demand globally and oversupply from the US.

Meanwhile, Indian rupee fell by 15 paise to 61.20 against the dollar in early trade on Friday due to fresh demand for the US currency from banks and importers amid a weak opening in local equities. The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2247 stocks traded, 657 stocks advanced, while 1511 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26364.66 down by 272.62 points or 1.02% after trading in a range of 26555.92 and 26301.38. There were 3 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.96%, while Small cap index was down by 0.76%.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 2.26% and TECK up by 1.37%, while Metal down by 2.69%, Auto down by 1.81%, FMCG down by 1.69%, Capital Goods down by 1.58% and Infrastructure down by 1.53% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 5.67%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 0.57% and Hero MotoCorp up by 0.38%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 3.60%, Tata Steel down by 3.48%, Hindalco down by 3.42%, Sesa Sterlite down by 2.62% and HDFC down by 2.48% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Giving a reason to cheer to the new government, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has said that India will receive the highest-ever inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the current financial year, attracted by the policy reforms announced by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

While the highest so far FDI received by the country was in 2011-12 at $35.12 billion, in the four months of this fiscal alone inflows have crossed $10.75 billion and in June only FDI inflow jumped by 34 percent to $1.92 billion.

The new government, since its formation has been taking all sorts of measures to boost FDI inflow in the country. It has raised FDI limit in defence manufacturing and also cleared the long-delayed 100 percent FDI in railways, while there is a debate going on regarding 100 percent FDI in the insurance sector.

Atul Chaturvedi, joint secretary in the DIPP said that we would achieve an all-time high in FDI inflows in FY15 given the extra focus on the same we are giving and looking at increasing FDI with all these   promotional measures and promoting the country as an investment destination. He, however, declined to give a target for the inflows, which the government is expecting for the fiscal. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7878.75 down by 81.80 points or 1.03% after trading in a range of 7,912.65 and 7,854.50. There were 6 stocks advancing against 44 declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Infosys up by 5.70%, HCL Tech up by 1.98%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.52%, BPCL up by 0.97% and Dr. Reddys Lab up by 0.75%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 3.61%, Tata Steel down by 3.54%, Hindalco down by 3.48%, Cairn India down by 3.22% and NMDC down by 3.18% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in the red; Nikkei 225 tumbled 1.46%, KOSPI Index slipped 1.49%, Straits Times dropped 0.96%, Jakarta Composite declined by 0.75%, Shanghai Composite dipped 0.62%, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 1% and Hang Seng was down by 1.69%. Taiwan market remained shut for the trade today for National Day.