Markets trade with losses on sustained profit-booking activities

Markets continued to trade into negative territory with losses of over three tenths of a percent on sustained profit-booking activities by both funds and retail investors after five straight sessions of gains.  Barometer gauges after making a weak start just kept on losing ground on continued profit-booking activities. Although some recovery came to the fore in the early deals that was reciprocated with selling.

Markets failed to draw solace from reports from Fitch as the global rating agency just about retained India's credit outlook at 'stable' saying although 'dynamism' is back in the economy translation of reforms into higher growth would depend upon actual implementation.  Both Sensex and Nifty, though off day’s low, were trading below crucial 28,800 and 8,750 levels respectively. However, the session turned out to be yielding for broader indices, which outperforming larger counterparts were trading with gains of over half of a percent.

On the global front, Asian shares advanced near recent highs on Friday, with the optimism being rubbed off on European stock markets. News that Greece had made a 450 million euro loan payment to the International Monetary Fund, securing extra emergency lending for its banks, helped improve global risk sentiment, despite scepticism over how far Athens' economic reforms would go.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were trading into positive territory, nevertheless stocks from Realty, Power and Oil & Gas counters were the top gainers of the session. On the flip side, much of the drubbing was witnessed by stocks from Healthcare, Capital Goods and Fast Moving Consumer Goods counters were the prominent losers of the session. In stock specific action, telecom firms were mixed after the telecom regulator cut the maximum chargeable rates for roaming services effective May 1, 2015.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28822.07, down by 63.14 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 28768.28 and 28899.19. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.56%, while Small cap index up by 0.58%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were INFRA up by 0.90%, Realty up by 0.83%, Consumer Durables up by 0.79%, PSU up by 0.62% and Power up by 0.53% while, Capital Goods down by 0.27%, FMCG down by 0.19% and IT down by 0.09% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 1.87%, Sesa Sterlite up by 1.80%, Tata Power up by 1.47%, BHEL up by 1.33% and Infosys up by 0.75%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 2.02%, Hindalco down by 1.18%, HDFC Bank down by 1.16%, HDFC down by 1.09% and NTPC down by 0.83% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India's urea imports rose by 23% to 87.49 lakh tonnes last fiscal on higher demand. The country, which is among the world's top three consumers of urea, imported 70.88 LT of the fertilizer in 2013-14. Overall, the country produces about 22 million tonnes urea as against the annual domestic demand of 30 MT. The country's urea imports had dipped 12% to 7.08 MT in 2013-14 due to carry-over stocks from the previous year. It had imported 8.04 MT of urea in the entire 2012-13 fiscal.

Urea is imported by three state trading enterprises (STEs), Indian Potash, MMTC and STC on behalf of the government to meet domestic shortfall. The government also imports fertilizer through OMIFCO, which is a joint venture project of IFFCO and Kribhco, with an off-take agreement.

Though, STEs imported urea at average price of about $300 per tonne, lower than the previous year's average price of about $322 per tonne, urea shipped by OMIFCO is much cheaper than STEs' soil nutrient.

Urea is provided to farmers at a fixed subsidized maximum retail price of Rs 5,360 per tonne. The difference between the cost of production and MRP of urea is provided as subsidy to manufacturers. The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8756.90, down by 21.40 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 8739.70 and 8781.40. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Idea Cellular up by 2.85%, PNB up by 2.07%, Sesa Sterlite up by 2.03, IDFC up by 1.86% and NMDC up by 1.82%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 2.24%, Cipla down by 2.01%, Zee Entertainment down by 1.97%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.85% and Hindalco down by 1.47% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly higher; with Straits Times trading higher by 15.44 points or 0.45% to 3,475.74; KOSPI Index trading higher by 28.89 points or 1.4% to 2,087.76; Taiwan Weighted trading higher by 49.66 points or 0.52% to 9,617.70; Shanghai Composite trading higher by 76.78 points or 1.94% to 4,034.31; Hang Seng trading higher by 195.49 points or 0.73% to 27,139.88.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 declined by 30.09 points or 0.15% to 19,907.63 and Jakarta Composite slid by 5.86 points or 0.11% to 5,495.04 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI lost 5.29 points or 0.29% to 1,844.10 were the top losers.

European Markets were trading into positive territory; with France’s CAC inching higher by 11.39 points or 0.22% to 5,220.34; UK’s FTSE 100 inching higher by 14.96 points or 0.21% to 7,030.32 and Germany’s DAX inc inching higher by reased 61.13 points or 0.5% to 12,227.57.