Benchmarks extend early losses in afternoon session

Indian equities added losses to continue their weak trade in the afternoon session hovering near the lowest point of the day on offloading of positions by speculators ahead of monthly expiry in the derivatives segment amidst mixed global cues. Further, profit booking in some selected blue chip stocks after recent gains and selling in banking, IT and teck stocks dragged the major indices down. Though, most of major sectoral indices were trading in green. Sentiments took hit as ratings agency ICRA in its latest report highlighted that the Indian economic growth may have slowed to 5 per cent in the July-September quarter. Further, the SEBI latest move to impose restrictions on issue of Offshore Derivative Instruments (ODIs) by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) also dented the investors’ sentiments. Broader indices were outperforming the major indices as both mid cap and small cap indices were trading up by over 0.30%.

Atul Auto has gained around 4% to Rs 455 after Goldman Sachs India Fund bought nearly 300,000 shares of the company from the open market. On the other hand, shares of Greenply Industries has locked in lower circuit, down 14% to Rs 948 as the company has fixed record date as 27 November 2014 for the purpose of determining the list of shareholders who are entitled to receive the shares in Greenlam Industries, the resulting company after the demerger.

On global front, Asian markets were trading mixed with Hang Seng up by 0.12% while, Nikkei 225 down 0.08% following a lower closing in the US markets in yesterday’s trade. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 8,400 and 28,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,529 stocks traded, 1,316 stocks advanced, while 1,118 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28269.45, down by 68.60 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 28261.31 and 28379.27. 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 0.36%, while Small cap index up by 0.67%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 0.92%, Realty up by 0.79%, FMCG up by 0.69%, PSU up by 0.51% and INFRA up by 0.37%. On the flip side, Bankex down by 0.62%, TECK down by 0.56%, IT down by 0.53% and Auto down by 0.37% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 2.97%, Cipla up by 1.76%, ITC up by 1.57%, BHEL up by 1.17% and Sesa Sterlite up by 0.74%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 1.77%, ICICI Bank down by 1.44%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.30%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.18% and Hindalco down by 1.09% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, showing poor management of public sector banks to tackle the NPA issue, PSU banks accounted for over 90 percent of total non-performing assets (NPAs) that the banking sector registered during 2013-14. Out of Rs 2.40 lakh crore gross NPAs reported by Indian banking system in 2013-14, Rs 2.16 lakh crore gross NPAs came from the public sector banks, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley informed the parliament. On the other hand, private sector banks had gross NPAs of Rs 22,738 crore as of March 31, 2014.

Till September 30 of the current fiscal, gross NPAs or bad loans of public and private sector banks stood at Rs 2.41 lakh crore and 26,571 crore respectively. During 2012-13 and 2011-12, the combined gross NPAs of public and private sector banks were at Rs 1.76 lakh crore and Rs 1.31 lakh crore respectively.

Concerned over the increasing NPA of public sector banks, the government has advised PSBs to constitute a board level committee for monitoring of NPAs and recovery, appointment of nodal officers for recovery at the head office. It has instructed Public Sector Banks (PSBs) that write-offs should not be more than recovery. Further, the RBI has also issued instructions to banks to review slippages in asset classification in the borrowal accounts with outstanding Rs 5 crore and review NPA accounts which have registered recoveries of Rs 1 crore and above.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8442.85, down by 20.25 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 8438.65 and 8468.70. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were GAIL India up by 2.89%, Asian Paints up by 2.23%, Cipla up by 1.80%, Indusind Bank up by 1.62% and ITC up by 1.59%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 4.57%, HCL Tech. down by 2.04%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.84%, Jindal Steel & Power down by 1.74% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.52% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, KOSPI Index up by 0.63 points or 0.03% to 1,980.84, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI up by 4.65 points or 0.25% to 1,843.21, Shanghai Composite up by 5.14 points or 0.2% to 2,572.73, Taiwan Weighted up by 6.15 points or 0.07% to 9,122.39, Hang Seng up by 28.41 points or 0.12% to 23,872.32. While, Nikkei 225 down 14.13 points or 0.08% to 17,393.49, Jakarta Composite down 8.47 points or 0.17% to 5,110.47 and Straits Times down 3.13 points or 0.09% to 3,341.86