Markets continue to trade lower in late morning session

Key domestic gauges continue to reel under pressure in late morning deals on Friday due to profit-booking by retail investors and funds after seven consecutive sessions of gains. Apart from that, a cautious stance by participants ahead of the Union Budget influenced the trading sentiment. Moreover, markets failed to draw any sense of relief with Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry allaying fears over Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), saying that FTA pacts may not lead to trade deficits.

On the global front, Japanese stocks rose to a fresh 15-year high on Friday with the dollar boosted by upbeat US data, but continuing uncertainty over the Greek debt negotiations weighed on the euro. Back home, sentiments also remained dampened on reports that Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 195.74 crore on Thursday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Selling in software and technology counters too dampened the sentiments as the rupee recovered by 14 paise at 62.20 against the US dollar in early trade today at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on fresh selling of the American currency by exporters.

On the sectoral front, realty, healthcare and public sector undertaking witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while oil and gas, software and technology remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices, however, were outperforming benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1234 shares on the gaining side against 970 shares on the losing side while 96 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29260.09, down by 202.18 points or 0.69% after trading in a range of 29178.26 and 29462.09. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.19%, while Small cap index gained 0.39%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.22%, Healthcare up by 0.57%, PSU up by 0.13%, Auto up by 0.12% and Capital Goods up by 0.12% while, Oil & Gas down by 1.53%, IT down by 1.04%, TECK down by 0.97%, Bankex down by 0.51% and Consumer Durables down by 0.48% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 2.66%, Hindalco up by 0.86%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 0.78%, ITC up by 0.60% and SBI up by 0.41%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 2.73%, ICICI Bank down by 1.93%, Tata Power down by 1.53%, Wipro down by 1.44% and HDFC down by 1.36% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari pitching for greater transparency and faster decision making at the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), has said that the government is planning to revamp the roads body.

NHAI which became operational in February 1995 and is responsible for the development, maintenance and management of national highways, witnessed its last restructuring in 2009 to enhance its institutional capacity. It was done to make it a multi-disciplinary professional body with quality financial management and contract management expertise.

The minister also emphasised on the need for reducing project costs and said, “We want to reduce the cost of the project and if we want to do that then we have to reduce the cost of material used for the project. Adding further, he slammed the cement industry for indulging in “cartelization” and said that it was pushing up costs for roads and highway projects. He also said that he will be approaching Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of “cartelization” by the cement industry.

The government had targeted awarding 8,000 km of road projects during the current financial year, majority of which will be built on EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) basis and so far it has been able to award 7,000 km of projects.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8842.35, down by 52.95 points or 0.60% after trading in a range of 8816.30 and 8899.95. There were 19 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BHEL up by 2.73%, Jindal Steel & Power up by 2.05%, Bank of Baroda up by 1.65%, PNB up by 1.18% and DLF up by 0.90%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 2.74%, HCL Tech. down by 1.96%, ICICI Bank down by 1.86%, Wipro down by 1.44% and HDFC down by 1.37% were the top losers.

In the Asian region lots of markets are not trading, but those who are trading were trading in the green terrain; Jakarta Composite increased 30.21 points or 0.56% to 5,420.66 and Nikkei 225 was up by 62.84 points or 0.34% to 18,327.63.