Benchmarks continue weak trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued their weak trade in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters. The sentiments were under pressure after macro-economic announcement that India’s fiscal deficit widened to 99% at Rs 5.25 lakh crore during April-November this fiscal as against Rs 5.31 lakh crore Budget Estimates for 2014-15. Traders were seen piling positions in Metal, Infra and Capital Goods stocks while selling was witnessed in FMCG, Oil & Gas and Power sector stocks. In scrip specific development, shares of airline operator Jet Airways and SpiceJet was trading firm after aviation fuel prices were cut by around 12.5 percent in metro cities. The government had also asked the airport operators to allow SpiceJet to operate for another 10 days without making payments on a daily basis. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below the psychological 8,300 and 27,500 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1679:947 while 108 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27470.19, down by 29.23 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 27395.34 and 27493.37. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.62%, while Small cap index up by 1.14%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.68%, INFRA up by 0.56%, Capital Goods up by 0.45%, Consumer Durables up by 0.41%, TECK up by 0.32% while, FMCG down by 0.33%, Oil & Gas down by 0.06%, Power down by 0.02%, Bankex down by 0.01% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 1.86%, Sesa Sterlite up by 1.84%, BHEL up by 1.06%, Tata Steel up by 0.84% and SBI up by 0.72%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 1.23%, NTPC down by 1.01%, Coal India down by 0.98%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 0.93% and GAIL India down by 0.55% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India's external debt stood at $455.9 billion during the first six months of this fiscal, which was higher by 3.1 percent from March-end level. The rise in external debt during the period was due to long-term external debt particularly commercial borrowings and NRI deposits. The external debt consist of long-term debt of $369.5 billion up 4.7 percent from March 2014 and short-term debt $86.4 billion which was down 3.2 percent from March end level.

As per the Finance Ministry notification, share of commercial borrowings was highest at 35.4 percent of total external debt, followed by NRI deposits at 23.8 percent and multilateral debt at 11.7 percent. Sovereign external debt stood at $88.4 billion in September, up from $81.5 billion in March 2014.

Currency wise, the share of US dollar denominated debt continued to be the highest in external debt stock at 60.1 percent at end-September 2014, followed by the Indian rupee 24.2 percent, Special Drawing Rights (SDR) 6.5 percent, Japanese yen 4.5 percent and euro 3 percent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8274.20, down by 8.50 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 8248.75 and 8279.70. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 2.00%, Sesa Sterlite up by 1.77%, NMDC up by 1.66%, BHEL up by 1.15% and Indusind Bank up by 1.10%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 1.29%, Coal India down by 1.06%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.05%, NTPC down by 0.97% and Cairn India down by 0.89% were the top losers.