Benchmarks trade lower in early deals on Wednesday

Indian equity benchmarks have made a cautious start and are trading slightly in the red in early deals on Wednesday as investors remained on sidelines ahead of WPI inflation data, which slated to be announced later in the day, for further cues. However, losses remained capped as the consumer price index (CPI) inflation slowed to 5.17% year-on-year in March, compared to 5.37% in February. Some support also came in with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) statement that India will overtake China as the fastest growing emerging economy in 2015-16 by clocking a growth rate of 7.5 percent on the back of recent policy initiatives, pick-up in investments and lower oil prices. Also, a senior American trade official has reportedly said that a series of reforms unleashed by India in recent months are “important steps” around open, predictable and rules based reforms.

On the global front, the US markets made a mixed closing in last session even though Commerce Department reported that retail sales rebounded in March following three straight monthly declines. Trade remained lackluster throughout the day. The Asian markets were trading mostly in the red at this point of time, though there was some stimulus hopes keeping the Chinese market in green after its economy expanded at the weakest pace since 2009 last quarter.

Back home, on the sectoral front, banking, FMCG and consumer durables witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while auto, technology and software remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices, however, were outperforming benchmarks, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1270 shares on the gaining side against 772 shares on the losing side while 78 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28972.57, down by 71.87 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 28969.63 and 29094.61. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.39%, while Small cap index up by 0.54%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 0.82%, FMCG up by 0.73%, Consumer Durables up by 0.68%, Capital Goods up by 0.37%, Power up by 0.17% while, Auto down by 0.89%, TECK down by 0.89%, IT down by 0.73%, INFRA down by 0.41%, Realty down by 0.07% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sesa Sterlite up by 2.22%, ITC up by 1.53%, ICICI Bank up by 1.15%, SBI up by 1.10% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.70%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.03%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.42%, Tata Motors down by 2.13%, Tata Steel down by 1.42% and Sun Pharma down by 1.40% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, stressing the need of lower taxes for boosting civil aviation, underscored that states which have responded positively to the Centre's request in this regard have witnessed a spurt in activities from the sector. The ministry has requested the state governments to bolster the aviation activity in the country by becoming aviation friendly. It had written to all chief ministers requesting them to be aviation-friendly and bring down taxes on Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF), which accounts for 40% of an airline’s total operational cost.

Further, the minister also acknowledged the inordinate delay for the proposed aircraft Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) depot project near Nagpur in Maharashtra, which it viewed as a big opportunity that could result in business worth million of dollars.

The MRO depot, which is a joint venture between Boeing and Air India was conceived in 2004-05, but construction work started only in 2011. Notably, Boeing MRO project is billed as the most modern project in Asia, which could save huge amounts of foreign exchange and also time for airlines.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8808.35, down by 25.65 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 8806.60 and 8844.80. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sesa Sterlite up by 2.29%, Yes Bank up by 1.66%, ACC up by 1.24%, PNB up by 1.15% and ITC up by 1.12%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.34%, Tata Motors down by 2.41%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.17%, Idea Cellular down by 1.83% and Sun Pharma down by 1.81% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the red; Taiwan Weighted decreased 77.12 points or 0.8% to 9,565.10, Shanghai Composite dropped 46.05 points or 1.11% to 4,089.52, Hang Seng slipped 13.74 points or 0.05% to 27,547.75, Jakarta Composite shed 12.64 points or 0.23% to 5,406.47 and Nikkei 225 was down by 1.53 points or 0.01% to 19,907.15.

On the flip side, KOSPI Index increased 2.08 points or 0.1% to 2,113.80, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 3.48 points or 0.19% to 1,843.09 and Straits Times was up by 16.85 points or 0.48% to 3,537.93.