Benchmarks trade lower in early deals on sluggish global cues

Pressurized by sluggish global cues, Indian equity benchmarks have made a weak start and are trading lower in early deals on Thursday. The US markets ended lower in last session, though the major averages recovered a lot from their lows of the day, still the Dow and the S&P 500 ended the day at a new six-month closing lows on an ongoing concerns about global economic growth. The Asian markets too were trading mostly in the red at this point of time, led by the Japanese market which has lost over two percent as the bigger-than-expected drop in US retail sales ignited concern over the impact of the global slowdown.

Back home, sentiments remained subdued with the government reporting that India’s trade deficit widened to $14.25 billion in September following a jump in oil and gold imports. While the merchandise imports surged nearly 26 percent last month, Exports were up by marginal 2.73 percent on year only. However, gains remained capped as some support came in from Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram’s statement that declining crude oil prices will have favourable implications for the country; however he cautioned that there is no need to be overly optimistic about it.

On the sectoral front, software, fast moving consumer goods and auto witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while power, consumer durables and capital goods remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were reeling under pressure, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 803 shares on the gaining side against 1054 shares on the losing side while 84 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 26260.35; around 89 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 26349.33, and has touched a high and a low of 26462.08 and 26248.47 respectively. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26338.87, down by 10.46 points or 0.04%. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The overall market breadth remained in the favour of decliners with 41.37% stocks advancing against 54.30% declines. The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.37%, while Small cap index down by 0.34%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.01%, IT up by 0.32%, FMCG up by 0.31%, Auto up by 0.31% and TECK up by 0.12% while, Power down by 1.03%, Consumer Durables down by 0.93%, Capital Goods down by 0.92%, Infrastructure down by 0.76% and Metal down by 0.75% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.08%, TCS up by 1.49%, GAIL India up by 1.43%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.65% and ITC up by 0.62%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 2.51%, Tata Power down by 2.25%, Sesa Sterlite down by 1.98%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.65% and BHEL down by 1.62% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, domestic passenger car sales declined by 1.03 per cent to 1,54,882 units in September from year-ago month. After posting four months of consecutive growth, car sales declined as customers postponed purchases during the month on account of festival season beginning in October amid expectation of better purchase offers.

According to the latest data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), passenger car sales declined to 1,54,882 units in September from 1,56,494 units in September 2013. Motorcycle sales last month climbed 19.34 per cent to 10,56,509 units from 8,85,309 units a year earlier. The total two-wheeler sales in September rose 23.81 per cent to 15,67,351 units . Commercial Vehicles sales have turned positive after 16 months of decline and rose by 8.59 per cent to 56,140 units in September as fleet owners have started buying trucks anticipating improved economic activity. Total sales of vehicles across categories registered an increase of 20.44 per cent to 19,04,007 units in reported month from 15,80,933 units in September 2013.

The SIAM Director General Vishnu Mathur has stated that car sales are expected to grow in October mainly on the back of festival season. However, the probability of interest rate increase by the Reserve Bank of India in the rest of the ongoing financial year, is a challenge for the auto industry. By adding further, V Mathur has said that rural incomes across the country could fall in the remainder of the ongoing financial year, due to poor output from kharif crop which could be the another challenge for the local automobile industry.

The CNX Nifty opened at 7,837.30; around 27 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 7,864.00, and has touched a high and a low of 7,893.90 and 7,836.45 respectively.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7855.75, down by 8.25 points or 0.10%. There were 19 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were DLF up by 5.57%, Tata Motors up by 2.19%, TCS up by 1.49%, GAIL India up by 1.44% and NMDC up by 1.23%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 2.45%, Tata Power down by 2.42%, Ultratech Cement down by 2.41%, Sesa Sterlite down by 2.08% and Cairn India down by 2.06% were the top losers.

Asian markets trade mostly in the red; Nikkei 225 tumbled by 279.28 points or 1.85% to 14,794.24, Hang Seng slipped 131.67 points or 0.57% to 23,008.38, KOSPI Index declined 6.14 points or 0.32% to 1,919.77, Straits Times decreased by 35.16 points or 1.10% to 3,163.56, Jakarta Composite dipped 34.22 points or 0.69% to 4,928.72, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI contracted by 9.80 points or 0.55% to 1,777.04 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 6.44 points or 0.07% to 8,649.07.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was up by 13.35 points or 0.56% to 2,387.02.