Benchmarks trim losses; trade continues in red

Indian equity markets trimmed losses but continued its weak trade in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters. The sentiments were also under pressure on report that taxes on services, the biggest sector of India’s economy, declined by 5.2 percent in December year-on-year, as a result of which overall indirect tax collections rose only 5.1 percent in the month. Traders were seen piling positions in IT, TECK and Auto stocks while selling was witnessed in Metal, FMCG and Oil & Gas stocks. In scrip specific development, ITC was trading in red as the government has proposed ban on loose cigarettes sale. Hectic activity was witnessed in Jet Airways as investors were concerned after Naresh Goyal pledged his shares.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in red while the European markets were trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below the psychological 8,300 and 27,300 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1129:1562 while 121 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27282.74, down by 142.99 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 27203.25 and 27512.80. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.25%, while Small cap index down by 0.38%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.66%, TECK up by 0.44%, Auto up by 0.04%, Power up by 0.01% while, Metal down by 2.99%, FMCG down by 0.88%, Oil & Gas down by 0.87%, Bankex down by 0.63%, Realty down by 0.47% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 3.19%, BHEL up by 2.39%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.36%, Infosys up by 1.22% and ONGC up by 0.84%. On the flip side, Sesa Sterlite down by 6.19%, Hindalco down by 5.91%, ITC down by 3.34%, Tata Steel down by 2.71% and Sun Pharma down by 1.46% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, optimistic over the improving fundamentals of domestic economy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has asserted that economic revival has started adding that the government has managed to bring current account deficit within comfort level with help from falling oil prices.

Finance Minister stated that global economic situation is facing a critical challenge and thus focus will be given to domestic market and consumption as global economy is still not showing positive signs of growth except the USA. By adding further, he stated that the government is committed to fiscal discipline, boosting investment in infrastructure and reviving of manufacturing sector. The government has taken lots of initiatives during the last 7-8 months and economic growth is improving and inflation and external fronts has managed under control. Finance Minister held a pre-Budget interaction with economists and discussed about the key measures to boost the domestic economic growth.

After registering an average growth rate of 8% during FY08-FY12, Indian economic growth had slowed down to below 5% over the last two financial years. The factors like high interest rate and stubborn inflation, low investments and slow execution of infrastructure projects have impacted country’s economy growth. However, the domestic economy has shown signs of nascent recovery and expanded at 5.5% during first half of this fiscal as compared to 4.9% in the same period of previous fiscal.  

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8252.00, down by 47.40 points or 0.57% after trading in a range of 8236.65 and 8326.45. There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindustan Unilever up by 3.13%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.59%, BHEL up by 2.37%, ACC up by 2.03% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.55%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 6.03%, Sesa Sterlite down by 5.96%, ITC down by 3.36%, BPCL down by 2.99% and Tata Steel down by 2.68% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 291.75 points or 1.71% to 16,795.96, Hang Seng decreased 103.37 points or 0.43% to 24,112.60, Taiwan Weighted decreased 51.57 points or 0.56% to 9,180.23, Jakarta Composite decreased 32.17 points or 0.62% to 5,182.19, Shanghai Composite decreased 12.86 points or 0.4% to 3,222.44, Straits Times decreased 11.53 points or 0.35% to 3,329.54, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 6.43 points or 0.37% to 1,742.47 and KOSPI Index decreased 3.48 points or 0.18% to 1,913.66.

On the other hand, Germany’s DAX decreased 130.98 points or 1.32% to 9,810.02, France’s CAC decreased 73.74 points or 1.72% to 4,216.54 and UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 103.95 points or 1.59% to 6,438.25.