Markets pare all early gains; trade near intra-day low level

Indian bourses pared all early gains and slipped into the negative territory in afternoon session as global sentiment remained weak due to extended rout in oil prices and political uncertainty in Greece. Selling witnessed in metal, realty and banking stocks dragged down the markets and all of the major indices except oil and gas were trading in red on BSE. Investors did not pay heed to positive industry related announcement at domestic front such as the government aligned the Foreign Direct Investment policy with the upgraded National Industrial Classification Code to improve the ease of doing business and to boost foreign investment. Selling was broad based with both mid cap and small cap indices were trading down by over 0.40%. Among blue chip stocks, HUL was top gainer up by around 2.89%, while GAIL was top loser trading down by around 3.16%. In stock specific movement, share of Britannia Industries has rallied nearly 4% to Rs 1,949 amid expectations of strong result for Q3FY15. Indian IT consulting company Tech Mahindra has gained more than 1% to Rs 2,561 after the company entered into a joint venture with US-based global telecom technology firm Avion Systems to provide network design and engineering services to communications service providers.

On global front, Asian markets were trading mixed with Straits Times up by 0.33% and Shanghai Composite down 0.77%. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 8,100 and 27,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2,447 stocks traded, 953 stocks advanced, while 1,408 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26837.05, down by 150.41 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 26827.94 and 27051.60. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.49%, while Small cap index down by 0.44%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.46%. On the other hand, Metal down by 1.56%, Realty down by 0.98%, Bankex down by 0.92%, Capital Goods down by 0.87% and Power down by 0.77% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 2.89%, NTPC up by 1.22%, Reliance Industries up by 1.09%, ONGC up by 0.99% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.95%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 3.16%, BHEL down by 2.80%, ICICI Bank down by 2.67%, Tata Steel down by 2.54% and Tata Motors down by 2.17% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, concerned over sluggish growth in investments as well as slow economic recovery, India Inc has urged the Government to ramp up public investments, especially in infrastructure in the upcoming budget. Indian Industry stated that the government must utilise the surplus cash pile of nearly Rs 2 lakh crore lying with the major Navratana companies to give a much needed boost to infrastructure and thereby fast-track Indian economy’s growth.

To boost the infrastructure development, the CII has suggested that the Government could contemplate a reverse Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) structure for funding the initial construction cost for creating infrastructure assets. CII is also of the view that once the infrastructure projects are completed and start generating cash flows, they can be given out to the private sector for operation and maintenance on a revenue sharing basis. FICCI President Jyotsna Suri stated that the government should rationalise tax structure and also help to bring down the cost of capital through reduction in interest rates.

After witnessing significant growth during Q1FY15, Indian economic growth slowed down to 5.3% in Q2FY15. Investments and consumption cycles remained at their lows with manufacturing growth moderating to 0.1% during reported quarter. Furthermore, during April to October period of this fiscal, Indian industrial output grew by 1.9% as compared to 0.2% in the same period of previous fiscal. The manufacturing output which accounts for around 75% of the IIP index, grew marginally by 0.7% in the reported period as against -0.1% contraction in year ago period.  

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8092.50, down by 34.85 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 8084.10 and 8151.20. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindustan Unilever up by 3.01%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.21%, Asian Paints up by 1.57%, NTPC up by 1.44% and Reliance Industries up by 1.21%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 3.03%, PNB down by 2.94%, BHEL down by 2.85%, Cairn India down by 2.84% and Tata Steel down by 2.60% were the top losers.

Asian Markets were trading mixed, KOSPI Index up by 1.38 points or 0.07% to 1,883.83, Straits Times up by 10.98 points or 0.33% to 3,292.93, Hang Seng up by 13.93 points or 0.06% to 23,499.34, Jakarta Composite up by 29.55 points or 0.57% to 5,198.61, Taiwan Weighted up by 31.75 points or 0.35% to 9,080.09. On the other hand, Shanghai Composite down  25.91 points or 0.77% to 3,325.54, Nikkei 225 down  20.31 points or 0.12% to 16,862.88 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI down  3.46 points or 0.2% to 1,713.12.