Selling intensifies; Sensex slips below the crucial 27800 level

Markets are not getting any respite from the selling pressure being witnessed since morning and the losses have widened further in the early noon session with Sensex losing the psychologically crucial level of 27800 and Nifty slipping below 8450 level. The global cues were putting pressure, while there is rate hike worries from the US Fed, the boil in crude is working as double whammy for the Indian markets. Brent crude surged by around 6 per cent after Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies began a military operation in Yemen. Selling by funds and retail investors was seen ahead of expiry of March series derivatives contracts later today. The weakness in rupee too was weighing on the sentiments of the market; rupee slumped on month-end dollar demand from banks and importers.  However, amid the gloom of the market, telecom stocks kept shining after the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology announced that the auction of spectrum in 2100 MHz, 1800 MHz, 900 MHz and 800 MHz bands came to an end after 115 rounds of bidding. Idea Cellular was up by over 2%, Bharti Airtel was higher by over 1% and RCom gained 0.50%. The broader markets too were trading in red, while on the sectoral front barring capital goods and power, almost all the indices were in red.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27761.65, down by 350.18 points or 1.25% after trading in a range of 27760.88 and 27997.14. There were 9 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red though at a comparatively lesser intensity than the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index declined by 0.37%, while Small cap index down by 0.61%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 0.77%, Power up by 0.40%, Consumer Durables up by 0.21%, INFRA up by 0.13%, while  Metal down by 1.50%, IT down by 1.42%, Bankex down by 1.08%, TECK down by 0.97%, PSU down by 0.60% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 2.01%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.19%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.15%, GAIL India up by 0.45% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.35%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 4.92%, Infosys down by 2.96%, Coal India down by 2.57%, HDFC Bank down by 2.07% and Sesa Sterlite down by 1.99% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has cleared 10 FDI proposals worth Rs 2,858 crore. The inter-governmental panel, chaired by Economic Affairs Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, also cleared the pharma firm IPCA Laboratories' proposal to hike foreign institutional investment (FII) to 35 per cent entailing an investment of Rs 900 crore.

As the FDI proposals under approval route are cleared by the FIPB, while those worth above Rs 1,200 crore are given final clearance by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), the proposal of Ambuja Cements for acquisition of 24 per cent shares in its holding company Holcim (India) for a share swap worth Rs 3,500 crore was referred to the CCEA.

The major proposals which got approval were of Reckitt Benckiser (India) to acquire 24.88% share of Reckitt Benckiser Healthcare India from its foreign investor, resulting in a foreign fund outflow of Rs 750 crore. Bangalore-based pharma firm Syngene International's proposal to inject Rs 380 crore into the company through 10% foreign equity participation has also been cleared. Biogenomics proposal to increase the foreign equity to 92.28% from 74% of the existing foreign shareholders by further infusion of capital amounting to Rs 75 crore too got FIPB’s nod along with Air Works India (Engineering) proposal for increasing foreign equity investment worth Rs 40 crore; while Ostro Energy's proposal to invest Rs 1,400 crore over four-five years in wind energy assets in India via downstream investment was approved earlier.

FIPB has deferred 18 proposals including that of Sharekhan for transfer of compulsory convertible debentures (CCDs) and compulsory convertible preference shares (CCPs), held by IDFC to Baring Private Equity.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8439.30, down by 91.50 points or 1.07% after trading in a range of 8438.15 and 8499.45. There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 2.64%, BHEL up by 1.99%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.51%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.20% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.14%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 5.06%, Infosys down by 3.15%, Coal India down by 2.86%, Sesa Sterlite down by 2.52% and HDFC Bank down by 2.13% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were mostly in red, Nikkei 225 slumped by 275.08 points or 1.39% to 19,471.12, Taiwan Weighted lost 48.71 points or 0.5% to 9,619.12, KOSPI Index was down by 20.25 points or 0.99% to 2,022.56, Jakarta Composite lost 5.64 points or 0.1% to 5,399.85 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was marginally down by 1.54 points or 0.08% to 1,817.56.

On the other hand, Straits Times gained 15.64 points or 0.46% to 3,434.66, Hang Seng was up by 21.43 points or 0.09% to 24,549.66 and Shanghai Composite added 30.66 points or 0.84% to 3,691.38.