Markets bounce-back from day’s low; Nifty trades above 8000 level

Local equity markets, after briefly slipping into negative territory, have now bounced back to green. However, gains remain limited in the wake of negative global-set up, with investors also adopting a cautious approach at the start of F&O expiry week. Both, Sensex and Nifty, coming off day’s low, were trading above psychologically crucial 26,850 and 8,000 levels respectively, with slender gains of around one tenth of a percent. However, broader indices continuing with their underperformance were trading with losses in the range of 0.05%-0.30%.

On the global front, Asian equities were trading mixed, partially driven by upbeat earnings and US economic data that eased recent global growth fears and sharpened risk appetite. However, European equities got off to a negative start, showing a muted reaction to Sunday's health check results of euro zone banks, which painted a slightly brighter picture than expected.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were trading into positive territory, nevertheless stocks from Capital Goods, Banking and Metal counters were the outperformers. Meanwhile, Shares of defence companies surged to 7% on reports that the government cleared defence projects worth Rs 80,000 crore. On the flip side, stocks from Realty counter were beaten blue in trade, followed by Oil & Gas and Auto counters. The fall of Realty counter was led by DLF stocks, which slumped over 8% on reports of probe by BJP in Vadra-DLF deal. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 1306:1186; while 103 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26868.51, up by 17.46 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 26827.08 and 26994.96. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.30%, while Small cap index down by 0.07%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 0.85%, Bankex up by 0.80%, Metal up by 0.62%, Power up by 0.43% and PSU up by 0.30% while, Realty down by 3.22%, Oil & Gas down by 0.87%, TECK down by 0.59%, FMCG down by 0.58% and Auto down by 0.51% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 3.58%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.99%, Sesa Sterlite up by 1.65%, GAIL India up by 1.15% and Tata Power up by 0.97%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.84%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.29%, ONGC down by 1.14%, Wipro down by 1.11% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.88% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with the intent of restricting oil imports and protecting domestic farmers, the government is mulling over an issue of raising import duty on crude and refined edible oils, among other matters. In the wake of local prices of oil falling to historic lows due to cheaper imports from Malaysia and Indonesia, Industry body Solvent Extractors Association (SEA) has been demanding a duty hike in crude edible oils to 10% and on refined edible oils to 25%.

Further, in the meeting held between the Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday, besides the import duty issue, problems faced by sugar mills in availing loans sanctioned through the Sugar Development Fund (SDF) along with the issue of additional budget allocation for FCI were discussed. Paswan, primarily, briefed Finance Minister about the current impasse between the UP sugar mills and the state government over cane price policy.

The food minister was in the favour of relaxing certain norms so that sugar mills could avail loans easily from SDF, while seeking additional budget allocation for state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) for giving food subsidies this fiscal. A budget allocation of Rs 92,000 crore has been made against the requirement of Rs 1,47,700 crore for this fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8022.00, up by 7.45 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 8008.30 and 8064.40. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BHEL up by 3.91%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.65%, Indusind Bank up by 2.37%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.83% and Sesa Sterlite up by 1.79%. On the flip side, DLF down by 7.38%, Jindal Steel & Power down by 6.63%, Cairn India down by 2.89%, Zee Entertainment down by 2.46% and HCL Tech. down by 2.04% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; with Hang Seng declining by 207.8 points or 0.89% to 23,094.40; Jakarta Composite declining by 28.08 points or 0.55% to 5,044.99; Taiwan Weighted declining 18.23 points or 0.21% to 8,627.78; Shanghai Composite declining 14.95 points or 0.65% to 2,287.33; Straits Times declining 3.98 points or 0.12% to 3,218.57. On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI were trading up by 4.95 points or 0.27% to 1,823.81; KOSPI Index were trading up by 6.28 points or 0.33% to 1,931.97; Nikkei 225 were trading up by 97.08 points or 0.63% to 15,388.72 .

European markets were trading in negative; with Germany’s DAX trading lower by 59.51 points or 0.66% to 8,987.80; UK’s FTSE 100 trading lower 30.42 points or 0.47% to 6,388.73  and  France’s CAC trading lower 28.78 points or 0.69% to 4,128.90.