Markets continue to languish into negative territory amidst pessimistic global set-up

Local equity markets continued to languish into negative territory in absence of positive trigger at home front and pessimistic global set-up. Risk-aversion was witnessed globally after Japan's economy unexpectedly slipped into recession in the third quarter, with gross domestic product (GDP) falling at an annualized 1.6% pace in July-September, after plunging to 7.3% in the second quarter following a rise in the national sales tax, which clobbered consumer spending. Off day’s low, though, while Sensex continued to trade below 27,900 mark, Nifty bounced back above 8,350 level, with losses of around three tenths of a percent. Meanwhile, broader indices continuing to outperform larger counterparts were trading with gains in the range of 0.50%-0.70%.

Back home, losses of the bourses were endorsed the most by stocks belonging to Metal, Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Information Technology counters, which were the top losers, so far in the session. On the flip side, maximum demand was witnessed stocks from Infrastructure, followed by Auto and Consumer Durables counters. Investors failed to drew some solace from Service sector’s export data which pointed that service sector, which contributes to more than 50% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) witnessed its exports rising by 5.3% to $ 12.94 billion in September this year compared to the same month last year. In August 2014, services exports were at $ 12.24 billion. While, import of services during the month of September fell by 9.1 per cent to $ 6.17 billion against the year-ago period. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 1420:1366; while 78 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27956.40, down by 90.26 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 27921.34 and 28052.27. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.49%, while Small cap index up by 0.66%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were INFRA up by 1.19%, Auto up by 0.89%, Consumer Durables up by 0.88%, PSU up by 0.83% and Power up by 0.82% while, Metal down by 0.87%, FMCG down by 0.55%, IT down by 0.53%, Capital Goods down by 0.44% and Bankex down by 0.27% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 4.00%, Tata Motors up by 3.05%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.51%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.26% and NTPC up by 1.12%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 1.97%, ICICI Bank down by 1.77%, HDFC Bank down by 1.56%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.23% and Sesa Sterlite down by 1.11% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Industry chamber Assocham has suggested that government must utilize the opportunity to integrate proposed Foreign Trade Policy with the 'Make in India' programme, which would help in realizing its greater objective of making India a low cost global manufacturing hub.

The apex trade association has suggested the country to prioritize its manufacturing focus on key sectors where India already has existing strengths like Auto, Textiles, Pharma, bio-tech etc and deepen its capabilities in creating strong global market share and mind share. It also insisted India to mandatorily provide incentives for Domestic Value Addition (DVA), which is the proportion of exports truly produced in India.

While, lauding Textile Industry’s efforts in nearly doubling its DVA component from 8% in 1994-95 to 18% as of 2013-14, it pointed that electrical components and machinery exports were the industries which require adequate support  so as to dovetail these sectors strongly into the 'Make in India' theme.

It noted that electronics was another key segment where India has a good talent base, domestic demand or consumption and necessary environment to create a strong manufacturing base.

On GST front, the trade apex industry body opined that the government should adopt a dual model of GST one for the Centre (CGST) and one for the state (SGST) to grant autonomy to both states and the Centre, thereby creating a harmonious model acceptable to states and centre.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8362.70, down by 27.20 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 8349.10 and 8382.60. There were 19 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI up by 4.20%, Tata Motors up by 3.26%, Asian Paints up by 2.64%, IDFC up by 2.17% and PNB up by 1.94%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel & Power down by 2.18%, Ultratech Cement down by 2.15%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.08%, DLF down by 2.04% and HDFC down by 2.01% were the top losers.

Asian markets were reeling under pressure; with Nikkei 225 trading lower by 517.03 points or 2.96% to 16,973.80; Hang Seng sliding by 209.62 points or 0.87% to 23,877.76; Taiwan Weighted shedding 98.49 points or 1.1% to 8,884.39; Straits Times losing 16.44 points or 0.5% to 3,299.23; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI declining by 2.19 points or 0.12% to 1,811.60; KOSPI Index inching lower by 1.51 points or 0.08% to 1,943.63. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was trading higher by 1.09 points or 0.04% to 2,479.91 and Jakarta Composite rising by 16.72 points or 0.33% to 5,066.21 were the top gainers amongst Asian pack.