Markets continue to trade weak amid feeble global cues

Indian bourses continued to trade deeply in red in the afternoon session amid heavy selling witnessed in front line blue chip stocks. Feeble global cues coupled with weak macro economic data dented the trading sentiments and almost all of the sectoral indices were trading in red. Sentiment got a hit as India’s trade deficit widened to 18-month high of $16.86 billion in month of November. Domestic sentiment also dampened due to the depreciating rupee and continued FII outflows. Barring IT and Teck, which saw value buying, rest other sectors led by metal, realty and banking witnessed hectic selling. Further, selling was broad based with both mid cap and small cap indices were trading down by over 2%. Meanwhile, shares of information technology (IT) companies were trading firm as rupee hit its lowest level in 13 months on Tuesday.

Shares of Tata Motors were down nearly 2% at Rs 485 after retail volumes of its UK-based subsidiary Jaguar and Land Rover dropped for the second straight month. On the other hand, shares in Mastek has rallied 9% to Rs 354, extending its previous day’s 20% rally, after Sundaram BNP Paribas Simple Fund bought nearly 200,000 shares of software services company through open market.

On global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in red with Nikkei 225 down 1.93% and Hang Seng down 1.39% as sliding oil prices and a downbeat China factory survey weighed on Asian shares. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 8,200 and 26,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2,452 stocks traded, 369 stocks advanced, while 2,019 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26949.20, down by 370.36 points or 1.36% after trading in a range of 26845.54 and 27199.37. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 2.14%, while Small cap index down by 3.04%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.52% and TECK up by 0.90%. On the other hand, Realty down by 2.89%, Metal down by 2.88%, Consumer Durables down by 2.33%, Bankex down by 2.17% and FMCG down by 1.93% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 2.34%, BHEL up by 0.82%, Infosys up by 0.82% and Wipro up by 0.65%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 6.10%, Sesa Sterlite down by 4.78%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 3.99%, ICICI Bank down by 3.62% and ONGC down by 2.97% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, as international oil prices slumped to five-year low, Petrol and diesel prices have been further cut by Rs 2 per litre each. This was the eighth straight reduction in petrol prices since August and fourth in diesel since October. In Delhi, petrol price has reduced to Rs 61.33 per litre, the lowest in 44 months and Diesel to Rs 50.51 per litre, the lowest since July 2013. After today's reduction, petrol price has been cut by Rs 12.27 per litre cumulatively since August and diesel prices have been cut by Rs 8.46 a litre in four reductions.

Owing to the oversupply in international markets, crude oil prices have been witnessing steady declining trend since June and hit a fresh five-year low of about $60 per barrel on December 15.  State-run oil marketing companies stated that the price cut would have been sharper if rupee does not depreciate against the dollar in last few days.

Besides customers, the government has also benefited from falling oil prices. It raised excise duty on petrol and diesel twice to meet its fiscal deficit target of 4.1% of gross domestic product (GDP) in this financial year. These hikes are expected to generate additional revenue of about Rs 11,000 crore to the exchequer in the remainder of the financial year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8116.00, down by 103.60 points or 1.26% after trading in a range of 8082.80 and 8189.35. There were 8 stocks advancing against 42 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech up by 3.33%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.49%, TCS up by 2.47%, BPCL up by 2.07% and Infosys up by 0.73%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 6.17%, Sesa Sterlite down by 4.62%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 3.89%, ICICI Bank down by 3.61% and ONGC down by 3.43% were the top losers.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in red, Shanghai Composite up by 26.11 points or 0.88% to 2,979.53. While, Nikkei 225 down 330.68 points or 1.93% to 16,768.72, Hang Seng down 320.84 points or 1.39% to 22,707.01, Jakarta Composite down 94.5 points or 1.85% to 5,013.93, Straits Times down 67.87 points or 2.06% to 3,226.27, Taiwan Weighted down 34.72 points or 0.39% to 8,950.91, KOSPI Index down 16.23 points or 0.85% to 1,904.13 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI down 6.51 points or 0.38% to 1,690.80.