Benchmarks continue weak trade; Capital Goods, Metal drag

Indian equity markets extend losses and continued trading in red in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters and taking cues from global counterparts. Investors have turned cautious ahead of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data for December 2014 scheduled on February 12, 2015. On the same day, the government will release data for the annual rate of inflation based on the combined consumer price indices (CPI) for urban and rural India in January 2015. Traders were seen selling in Capital Goods, Metal and Realty sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Tata Steel was trading in red after the company reported a 69% dip in consolidated net profit for the October-December quarter. Apollo Tyres was trading weak after the company reported a 45.49 percent decline in consolidated net profit for the third quarter ended December 31.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in red while the European markets were trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below the psychological 8,600 and 28,400 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 937:1736 while 98 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28374.04, down by 343.87 points or 1.20% after trading in a range of 28337.43 and 28566.50. 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 0.84%, while Small cap index down by 0.83%. The losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods down by 2.17%, Metal down by 1.93%, Realty down by 1.63%, INFRA down by 1.59%, Auto down by 1.50%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.60%, Sun Pharma up by 1.46%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.42%, ONGC up by 1.37% and Infosys up by 0.48%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 4.90%, GAIL India down by 4.75%, Cipla down by 3.77%, Larsen & Toubro down by 3.50% and Sesa Sterlite down by 3.25% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, reversing the trend, India’s coal import fell by 20% at 15.73 million tonnes during January as against 19.75 Mt in December, 2014 due to lower demand from domestic steel makers. The January imports, however, were a marginal 2% more than the 15.37 MT imports in the same month of last year. Notably, Indian power companies have imported 163 MT stem coal out of the country's total coal imports of 210.55 MT in the entire 2014, accounting for more than 77% of imports.

Of the total imports during January this year, non-coking coal rose marginally higher at 15.91 MT compared to 15.36 MT in December, led by higher demand from country's fuel-hungry power plants, which have been battling fuel scarcity for a long time now.

Besides, imports of metallurgical coke, which is also used by the steel firms, were down to 98,770 tonnes from 1.76 lakh tonnes. Petroleum coke imports also decreased to 4.78 lakh tonnes from 6.9 lakh tonnes in December, 2014. Moreover, there was no import of pulverized coal in January as against 2.9 lakh tonnes in the previous month.

On the flip side, Anthracite coal imports rose to 52,293 tonnes in January from 33,190 tonnes in December 2014. Additionally, India's imported coal stocks, including steam coal and coking coal at eight major and two private ports rose by 2.27% to 8.207 MT in January-end against 8.025 MT as on December 26.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8567.50, down by 93.55 points or 1.08% after trading in a range of 8547.30 and 8605.55. There were 14 stocks advancing against 36 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech up by 2.09%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.81%, Sun Pharma up by 1.76%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.66% and ONGC up by 1.40%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 4.95%, GAIL India down by 4.51%, Larsen & Toubro down by 3.60%, DLF down by 3.49% and Cipla down by 3.42% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 158.39 points or 0.64% to 24,521.00, Taiwan Weighted decreased 34.68 points or 0.37% to 9,421.50, Straits Times decreased 12.25 points or 0.36% to 3,419.11, KOSPI Index decreased 8.52 points or 0.44% to 1,947.00 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 0.38 points or 0.02% to 1,812.87.

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite increased 6.17 points or 0.12% to 5,348.69, Shanghai Composite increased 19.22 points or 0.62% to 3,095.12 and Nikkei 225 increased 63.43 points or 0.36% to 17,711.93.

The European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 205.09 points or 1.89% to 10,641.30, France’s CAC decreased 65.38 points or 1.39% to 4,625.65 and UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 69.09 points or 1.01% to 6,784.35.