Markets trade near intra-day low levels in afternoon session

Indian bourses extended losses and were trading near intra-day low level in afternoon session as fresh selling appeared in infra, oil and gas and power stocks. Further, offloading of positions by participants ahead of December month F&O contracts expiry later in the day also put pressure on domestic benchmarks. Sentiments also turned pessimistic as Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian said that it would be a challenge to restrict the fiscal deficit to 4.1 percent in current fiscal. Furthermore, continuous selling by foreign investors and depreciation in rupee value also weighed on the sentiment. Among the sectoral indices, realty was the top gaining index up by around 1.29%, while infra was top losing index trading down by around 1.03%. Among blue chip stocks, Mahindra & Mahindra was top gainer up by around 0.96%, while Hindalco was top loser trading down by around 2.06%. However, broader indices outperformed the major indices as both mid cap and small cap indices trading up by over 0.30%.

Shares of real estate developer Sobha has rallied 5% to Rs 493 on BSE after a foreign investor Platinum Investment Management Limited acquired over 300,000 shares of the company through open market. Nandan Denim soared 14% to Rs 64.35 after it was announced that Devkinandan Corporation LLP, one of the promoters, increased its stake in the company via open market.

On global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in green with Straits Times up by 0.4% and Hang Seng up by 0.07% as global investors sentiments got a boost after revised data showing the US economy grew at a 5.0 per cent clip in the third quarter, its quickest pace in 11 years. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above their psychological 8,300 and 27,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2,389 stocks traded, 1,205 stocks advanced, while 1,093 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27480.45, down by 26.01 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 27449.64 and 27571.25. There were 12 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.32%, while Small cap index up by 0.30%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.29%, Auto up by 0.57%, IT up by 0.19%, FMCG up by 0.16% and Capital Goods up by 0.08%. On the other hand, INFRA down by 1.03%, Oil & Gas down by 0.70%, Power down by 0.62%, PSU down by 0.60% and Metal down by 0.39% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.96%, ITC up by 0.92%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.58%, Infosys up by 0.55% and Tata Motors up by 0.27%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 2.06%, NTPC down by 2.00%, ONGC down by 1.19%, HDFC down by 1.10% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.97% were the top losers.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8262.15, down by 4.85 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 8251.55 and 8286.40. There were 21 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 4.36%, Ambuja Cement up by 1.74%, ACC up by 1.51%, Grasim Industries up by 1.30% and HCL Tech up by 1.10%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 2.13%, Hindalco down by 1.96%, Power Grid Corp down by 1.76%, ONGC down by 1.22% and HDFC down by 1.13% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to enhance foreign investments and boost domestic manufacturing, the Government is likely to consider a proposal for liberalizing foreign direct investment (FDI) policy soon for the cash-starved medical devices sector. The proposal to relax the FDI policy has been mooted by the Commerce and Industry Ministry.As the medical devices sector falls under the pharmaceutical category, it is accordingly subjected to FDI limits and other conditions such as mandatory government nods. FDI in medical devices sector is permitted through government-approval route, however the industry has been demanding that FDI should be put under the automatic route. India badly needs foreign investments in medical devices and equipment sector.

Industry is of the view that the domestic companies are not competitive as global firms and not big like drug firms and thus there is no threat of mergers and acquisitions from multi-national firms.

Medical devices include wide range of products such as implants sutures and surgical instruments. The present market size of the industry stands at around $7 billion. As per estimates, India imports about 70 percent of its requirement of medical devices. The industry size is about $7 billion in the country.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8349.00, up by 25.00 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 8319.15 and 8364.75. There were 29 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Grasim Industries up by 2.24%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.86%, Bank of Baroda up by 1.81%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.76% and HDFC up by 1.38%. On the flip side, HCL Tech down by 2.17%, Hindalco down by 1.51%, Sesa Sterlite down by 1.38%, Cairn India down by 1.33% and Coal India down by 1.29% were the top losers.

Most of the Asian markets were trading in green, KOSPI Index up by 7.59 points or 0.39% to 1,946.61, Straits Times up by 13.4 points or 0.4% to 3,345.91, Hang Seng up by 15.65 points or 0.07% to 23,349.34, Jakarta Composite up by 28.26 points or 0.55% to 5,167.33, Taiwan Weighted up by 88.47 points or 0.97% to 9,186.18, Nikkei 225 up by 188.08 points or 1.07% to 17,823.22, Shanghai Composite down 68.03 points or 2.24% to 2,964.58, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI down 2.17 points or 0.12% to 1,746.88.