Markets extend early losses amid profit booking

Indian equity benchmarks extended early losses in afternoon session on account of profit booking in blue chip frontline stocks after the recent rallies. Further, fresh selling that appeared in metal and capital goods stocks also dragged the major indices lower. Sentiments got a hit as the OECD has lowered India's GDP growth forecast to 5.4% for this year from 5.7% projected earlier in September. Banking stocks were trading down by over 0.25% as Credit rating agency, Moody’s stated that the asset quality of state owned banks would continue to be burdened by weak financial health of Indian corporate. Though most of the sectoral indices were trading in red, healthcare and realty stocks were witnessing strong buying. Stock specific movement, Aurobindo Pharma is trading higher by 3% at Rs 1,032 after reporting a robust 58% yoy jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 372 crore for Q2FY15, mainly on account of overall growth led by US Generics. On the other hand, realty firm Godrej Properties declined nearly 3% to Rs 253 as the company reported a 4.07% decline in its revenue in the second quarter.

On global front, most of Asian markets were trading in green with Shanghai Composite up by 0.32% and Taiwan Weighted up by 0.24%. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 8,300 and 27,500 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2,636 stocks traded, 1,181 stocks advanced, while 1,354 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27796.91, down by 118.97 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 27739.56 and 27980.93. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green and red; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.22%, while Small cap index down by 0.24%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.44% and Consumer Durables up by 0.54%. On the other hand, Metal down by 0.77%, Capital Goods down by 0.68%, INFRA down by 0.55%, Auto down by 0.37% and FMCG down by 0.34% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 2.80%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.27%, Sun Pharma Inds up by 0.79%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.78% and Hindalco up by 0.70%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.02%, HDFC Bank down by 1.89%, Sesa Sterlite down by 1.75%, GAIL India down by 1.62% and Wipro down by 1.52% were the top losers.

Highlighting high growth potential of domestic power sector, Power Minister Piyush Goyal has asserted that power sector has the potential to attract $250 billion investments over the next five years, of which $100 billion will come from renewable energy sector and $50 billion for the transmission networks.

Piyush Goyal added that at present the country produce one trillion units power a year and aim is to take it to two trillion by 2019. Renewable and stranded gas-based power plants only produce around 10 percent of total number of units and thus need to be revived. Minister further added that the government is taking measures to overcome fuel challenges to provide power to all 1.2 billion people. Government is planning to double coal production target to one billion tonnes in the next five years to meet rising energy demands in the country. The Minister also called for an increasing private sector role in coal production and expressed interest in new gas discoveries and ways to get gas plants back on stream.

Industry installed power capacity stands at around 248 GW, out of which coal-fired plants account for about 59% and hydro plants accounts for around 17% of India's totalled installed electricity capacity. Presently, coal shortage in the country has become a key concern for Indian power sector. Indian domestic coal demand is around 35 percent higher than domestic supply. Coal India (CIL) is the only producer of coal in the country, which is struggling to meet domestic coal requirements. CIL production fell 4.21 percent short of its production target to 462.53 million tonnes in FY14 amid concerns like shutdown of mining activities in Talcher Coalfields in Odisha. The government has set coal production target at 507 million tonnes to Coal India for FY15.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8310.00, down by 28.30 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 8290.25 and 8360.35. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were DLF up by 5.25%, Zee Entertainment up by 3.13%, Axis Bank up by 2.87%, BPCL up by 2.86% and Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.27%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.52%, HDFC Bank down by 1.94%, GAIL India down by 1.81%, Asian Paints down by 1.80% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.77% were the top losers.

Most of Asian markets were trading in green, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI up by 1.34 points or 0.07% to 1,833.32, KOSPI Index up by 3.39 points or 0.18% to 1,939.87, Straits Times up by 4.71 points or 0.14% to 3,295.67, Shanghai Composite up by 7.76 points or 0.32% to 2,433.62, Taiwan Weighted up by 21.6 points or 0.24% to 8,912.62 and Nikkei 225 up by 74.22 points or 0.44% to 16,866.70. While, Jakarta Composite down 24.94 points or 0.5% to 5,009.29 and Hang Seng down 16.97 points or 0.07% to 23,632.34