Weak trend continues; Sensex trades lower by over 300 points

Weak trend of the market persisted in the early noon trade with no sign of respite, while the global concern were putting pressure on the markets, there was worries of exit polls predicting an AAP win in the Delhi assembly elections. Though, it would do little to change national political scenario but its leader Arvind Kejriwal’s rhetoric against big business is raising fear in the markets. A disappointing December quarter earnings over the weekend also weighed on sentiments and has provided a fresh excuse to book some profits. Gail has reported fall of 64.03% in its net profit at Rs 604.08 crore for third quarter ended December 31, 2014. J&K Bank’s profit fell by over 67%, and Ipca labs’ net profit was down by over 70%. Back on street none of the sectoral indices were showing any resistance and all were trading in red on BSE with some like, metal, realty and capital goods even suffering cuts of around one and half a percent. Broader indices too were feeling the heat and were down by close to a percent each.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28413.58, down by 304.33 points or 1.06% after trading in a range of 28337.43 and 28566.50. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.82%, while Small cap index lost 0.67%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal down by 1.87%, Capital Goods down by 1.55%, INFRA down by 1.47%, Realty down by 1.45%, Auto down by 1.34% , while none of the sectoral index was in green.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 1.60%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.28%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.28%, Infosys up by 0.45% and Axis Bank up by 0.18%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 4.26%, Tata Steel down by 4.12%, Bharti Airtel down by 3.55%, Cipla down by 3.46% and Sesa Sterlite down by 3.02% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, coming down heavily on entities using stock markets for evading taxes and laundering black money, Capital market watchdog, Stock Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has decided to suspend trading in listed companies that are found to be used by such manipulators.

While, SEBI has identified three parameters for taking action against such companies, it has decided to suspend the trading activities of those companies, which are found to be violating more than one parameters identified by it. The parameters include, companies being non-existent on their mentioned address, misuse of preferential allotment and weak fundamentals not supporting price rise.

It has been reported that both the ‘bull’ and the ‘bear’ cartel have been estimated to be assisting over 1,000 entities, including individuals, listed companies and their promoters and top executives -- in tax evasion and money laundering. While, bear cartel acts in concert to push down the share prices to show losses that are eventually used to counterbalance tax demand of the customer from his or her other income, bull cartel is utilized for sharp rise in share prices to make undue gains in stocks of little-known companies to launder black money through stocks and show the same as legitimate gains.

Notably, while a large number of small NBFCs and brokers are already under SEBI's scanner for having facilitated illicit transactions worth thousands of crore of rupees over the past 2-3 years, market watchdog has noticed incremental growth of such illicit activities in the recent years.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8574.50, down by 86.55 points or 1.00% after trading in a range of 8547.30 and 8605.55. There were 12 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Asian Paints up by 2.06%, ONGC up by 1.57%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.56%, Sun Pharma Inds up by 1.42% and Cairn India up by 0.85%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 4.17%, Tata Steel down by 4.11%, Bharti Airtel down by 3.75%, Cipla down by 3.20% and DLF down by 3.18% were the top losers.

Asian markets were showing a mixed trend, Jakarta Composite was up by 21.13 points or 0.4% to 5,363.65, Shanghai Composite gained 38.11 points or 1.24% to 3,114.02 and Nikkei 225 increased by 63.43 points or 0.36% to 17,711.93.

On the other hand, Hang Seng was down by 92.7 points or 0.38% to 24,586.69, Taiwan Weighted was lower by 34.68 points or 0.37% to 9,421.50, KOSPI Index declined by 8.52 points or 0.44% to 1,947.00, Straits Times lost 5.38 points or 0.16% to 3,425.98 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was trading lower by 1.82 points or 0.1% to 1,811.43.