Profit booking in late trade drags benchmarks lower

Tuesday’s trading session turned out to be a disappointing for the Indian equity markets as market participants booked all their initial gains hurt by selling pressure in banking, IT, realty and capital goods counters. The domestic benchmarks traded jubilantly for most part of the trades on report that the credit rating agency Moody’s has said that Indian government's efforts to revive the stranded gas-based power projects will benefit the banks as they have significant exposure to such plants but a sharp wave of selling, which emerged in last leg of trade, dragged the key gauges below their neutral lines.

Sentiments turned down-beat as traders seemed to be worried of budget proposals which will come into effect from April 1, 2015. Market-men also remained concerned about the brewing development in the Middle East and domestic stock valuations amid a more gradual economic growth than anticipated earlier. There was lots of banking related developments but the gauge after making good gains in first half gave up all the gains to be the biggest laggard.

Selling got intensified as European markets pared their initial gains and were trading weak in early deals as the euro weakened amid few signs of progress in talks between Greece and its creditors. However, Asian markets ended mostly in the green on Tuesday though, the Japanese and Chinese market ended in red with loss of over a percent as investors took profit, paring the gauge’s quarterly gains.

Back home, sentiments remained dampened on report that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 240.34 crore on Monday, as per provisional data. However, losses remain capped as rupee appreciated by 12 paise and was trading at 62.55 at the time of equity markets closing as compared to Monday’s close of 62.67.

Meanwhile, select stocks from metal and mining advanced after China unleashed new policy moves to rejuvenate a wobbly property market. Auto stocks too remained on buyers’ radar ahead of the release of monthly sales volume data for March 2015. Additionally, shares of public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) i.e. BPCL, HPCL and IOC edged higher after IOC reportedly said to post good profit in the final quarter. Though, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) remained mixed after the Reserve Bank of India proposed new norms for regulation of non-banking financial companies.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty dipped marginally to end below its psychological 8,500 support level, while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index -- Sensex declined by around twenty points to finish below the psychological 28,000 mark. Broader markets, however, outperformed benchmarks and ended with a gain of around half a percent. The market breadth remained in favour of advances, as there were 1,588 shares on the gaining side against 1,132 shares on the losing side while 113 shares remain unchanged.

Finally, the BSE Sensex declined by 18.37 points or 0.07% to 27957.49, while the CNX Nifty lost 1.30 points or 0.02% to 8,491.00.

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 28180.64 and 27868.21, respectively. The BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.31%, while Small cap index was up by 0.88%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Power up by 3.42%, GAIL India up by 2.37%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.91%, Tata Motors up by 1.85% and Reliance Industries up by 1.77%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.51%, Tata Steel down by 1.72%, Hindalco down by 1.71%, BHEL down by 1.53% and HDFC Bank down by 1.32% were the top losers.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.18%, Healthcare up by 1.03%, Auto up by 0.64%, INFRA up by 0.41% and PSU up by 0.19% while, Bankex down by 0.81%, Capital Goods down by 0.49%, IT down by 0.20%, FMCG down by 0.19 and Realty down by 0.11% were the losing indices on BSE.

Meanwhile the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has received 28 applications for the first batch of FM Radio Phase III auctions with the applicants cumulatively submitting Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) of about Rs 316.91 crore.

The government has invited applications for the e-auction of 135 Private FM Radio Channels in 69 cities with existing services. The applications are subject to requirements and scrutiny, after which the ministry will release a list of pre-qualified bidders, which is expected to be out by April 23. The first batch of e-auctions will see the addition of new radio channels in cities such as Chennai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad. In each of these cities one FM radio channel is up for grabs.

Reliance Broadcast Network, Times Group's Entertainment Network (India), Sun TV Network, HT Media, Jagran Prakashan's Music Broadcast Pvt, DB Corp, Embassy Nirman, Malar Publications, Nirmal Sagar Buildcon, Kal Radio, South Asia FM, Sun TV Network, Digital Radio (Delhi) Broadcasting, Digital Radio (Mumbai) Broadcasting, Abir Buildcon, Remi Overseas and Sunplant Broadcasting  are among the companies that have applied to participate in the FM radio auctions. It has been reported that 15 of the companies that have applied already hold licences for private FM channels under Phase-II.

Currently, 243 FM radio channels are operational in 86 cities of which 21 private FM radio channels were set up in Phase-I and an additional 222 channels were opened during Phase-II. Phase-III of the expansion of FM radio services seeks to pave way for introduction of private FM radio channels in 253 new cities, each having a population of more than one lakh as per Census-2011.

 The CNX Nifty touched a high and low of 8,550.45 and 8,454.15 respectively.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 5.16%, Tata Power Company up by 3.63%, GAIL (India) up by 2.25%, Tata Motors up by 1.96% and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories up by 1.89%. On the flip side, PNB down by 3.06%, ONGC down by 2.98%, NMDC down by 2.01%, Tata Steel down by 1.94% and UltraTech Cement down by 1.94% were the top losers.

European Markets were trading in the red; Germany's DAX was down by 0.65%, France's CAC was down by 0.23% and UK's FTSE 100 was down by 0.90%.

The Asian markets closed mostly in green on Tuesday, with Chinese stocks ending lower, as losses in the Oil Equipment Services & Distribution, Telecoms and Mobile sectors led shares lower. Chinese fund managers cut the proportion of their portfolios to be invested in stocks over the next three months to a six-month low, reflecting concerns that the mainland market may be overheating after a torrid rally. China’s central bank lowered minimum down-payment levels on second homes nationwide, scrapping a key policy originally aimed at controlling housing prices as it seeks to boost the economy. Hong Kong Retail Sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 14.9%, from -14.6% in the preceding month. Japanese Housing Starts rose to a seasonally adjusted -3.1%, from -13.0% in the preceding quarter. South Korean Industrial Production fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of -4.7%, from 1.7% in the preceding month whose figure was revised down from 1.8% while South Korean Retail Sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.8%, from -2.8% in the preceding month whose figure was revised up from -3.1%.