Benchmarks continue weak trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued their weak trade in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters. The sentiments were on pessimistic note despite 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. Investors have started eyeing corporate earnings which is likely to be the next immediate trigger for the markets as companies are expected to report Jan-March earnings starting next week. Traders were seen piling positions in Realty, Infra and PSU stocks while selling was witnessed in Capital Goods, Bankex and IT sector stocks. In scrip specific development, IDFC was trading in green after the company shareholders unanimously approved the scheme of arrangement among IDFC and IDFC Bank.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in green while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below the psychological 8,800 and 28,900 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1573:1091 while 122 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28833.35, down by 51.86 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 28756.75 and 28899.19. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.46%, while Small cap index up by 0.75%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.99%, INFRA up by 0.76%, PSU up by 0.55%, Metal up by 0.51%, Oil & Gas up by 0.45% while, Capital Goods down by 0.40%, Bankex down by 0.37%, IT down by 0.07%, FMCG down by 0.04% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sesa Sterlite up by 2.29%, SBI up by 2.21%, Tata Motors up by 1.19%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.06% and Tata Power up by 0.89%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 2.83%, HDFC Bank down by 1.68%, HDFC down by 1.62%, Hindalco down by 1.61% and NTPC down by 0.96% 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 8758.80, down by 19.50 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 8733.60 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 4.26%, Sesa Sterlite up by 2.52%, SBI up by 2.15%, NMDC up by 1.93% and IDFC up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 2.42%, Zee Entertainment down by 2.42%, Lupin down by 2.02%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.73% and HDFC Bank down by 1.57% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Straits Times increased 10.27 points or 0.3% to 3,470.57, KOSPI Index increased 28.89 points or 1.4% to 2,087.76, Taiwan Weighted increased 49.66 points or 0.52% to 9,617.70, Shanghai Composite increased 76.78 points or 1.94% to 4,034.31 and Hang Seng increased 328 points or 1.22% to 27,272.39.

On the other hand, Nikkei 225 decreased 30.09 points or 0.15% to 19,907.63, Jakarta Composite decreased 20.44 points or 0.37% to 5,480.46 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 7.26 points or 0.39% to 1,842.13.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC increased 8.72 points or 0.17% to 5,217.67, Germany’s DAX increased 74.45 points or 0.61% to 12,240.89 and UK’s FTSE 100 increased 19.69 points or 0.28% to 7,035.05.