Benchmarks continue to trade in red in late morning session

Indian bourses continued to trade in red in the late morning session on heavy selling by funds and investors in recent outperformers amid a weak trend in global markets. Sentiment on the street weakened with an Assocham’s post-Budget survey of CEOs and CFOs, where majority of them have said that they find revised GDP data of over 7 percent growth as “too good to be realistic” and too optimistic since the underlying situation is not all that upbeat. However, losses remained capped as Collection from direct taxes rose by 10.67 per cent to Rs 6.12 lakh crore in the first 11 months of the current financial year in line with the revised Budget projections. Meanwhile, some traders remained on the sidelines and refrained from any buying activity ahead of industrial production for January and consumer price index for February scheduled to be announced on Thursday. Besides, developments in the ongoing session of Parliament will be closely watched.

On global front, Asian stock markets fell after strong U.S. jobs data increased chances that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates sooner. The Fed has held interest rates close to zero for more than six years to stimulate growth following the 2008 global crisis. But Friday's announcement that employers added 295,000 jobs last month, which was far above expectations of about 235,000, fueled expectations unemployment would fall further and inflation might pick up. Back home, Indian rupee plummeted by 50 paise to 62.66 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday as the American currency strengthened overseas.

Back on street, all sectoral indices on the NSE ended in the negative territory with Banking, Power, IT and Capital Goods stocks leading the decline. In scrip specific development, shares of Sun Pharmaceuticals have dipped after the company's US-based unit is voluntarily recalling 5,322 bottles of Ketorolac Tromethamine ophthalmic solution in the US market for failing to meet specifications. On the flip side, shares of 8K Miles Software surged after the company’s US subsidiary has acquired a clinical research software startup in Canada.

The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2315 stocks traded, 880 stocks advanced, while 1335 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29089.39, down by 359.56 points or 1.22% after trading in a range of 29017.01 and 29321.06. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.45%, while Small cap index down by 0.34%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were, Bankex down by 1.94%, Power down by 1.63%, IT down by 1.48%, TECK down by 1.35% and Capital Goods down by 1.21%, while there were the no gainers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 1.70%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.65%, Coal India up by 1.25% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.74%. On the flip side, Sesa Sterlite down by 3.33%, Axis Bank down by 2.86%, GAIL India down by 2.61%, Tata Power down by 2.46% and NTPC down by 2.38% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India Inc is not very bullish about the Indian growth story based on the Central Statistical Office (CSO) revised estimates of GDP data of over 7 percent. In a post-Budget survey of 189 CEOs and CFOs, conducted by Industry body Assocham, a large majority of CEOs and CFOs have expressed their opinion about the revised growth figures as “too good to be realistic” and termed it too optimistic since the underlying situation is not all that upbeat.

According to the survey 71 percent of the CEOs said 'they would like to wait for some more time before they could be as optimistic as the government is about the new data”, while 68 per cent CFOs said the picture must “translate into solid sales and production data on the ground” and there was still some way to cover. Not only this, the majority of CEOs and CFOs surveyed, said that they would like the government not to base it optimism entirely on shifting to the new CSO series of the data on the GDP, as it is still early days for the new numbers to sink in and relate them to underlying figures of the old series

The industry body has echoed the views of Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian who had also said that the ambitious 8.1-8.5 percent economic growth projected for the next fiscal in the Union Budget is more like a 'statistical and not a real number. Recently CSO released GDP growth figures based on a new methodology, under which it expects economic expansion of 7.4 percent in the current fiscal, while GDP growth rate of last fiscal has also been revised upward to 6.9 percent. Assocham has said that “even though the new data series may reflect the best international practices, the shift seems to be so sudden that at times, it looks too good to be realistic”.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8824.70, down by 113.05 points or 1.26% after trading in a range of 8800.90 and 8891.30. There were 6 stocks advancing against 44 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Jindal Steel & Power up by 5.93%, Lupin up by 2.00%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.91%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.65% and Coal India up by 1.20%. On the flip side, Sesa Sterlite down by 3.55%, Axis Bank down by 2.85%, Ultratech Cement down by 2.83%, NTPC down by 2.62% and Tata Power down by 2.58% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in the red; Hang Seng decreased 0.75%, Nikkei 225 declined 0.87%, Taiwan Weighted shed 0.72%, Jakarta Composite tumbled 1.25%, Shanghai Composite dropped 0.86%, KOSPI Index dipped 1.08%, Straits Times slipped 0.54% and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 0.99%.