Benchmarks trade lower in early deals on Thursday

Extending their previous session's southward journey, Indian equity benchmarks have made a weak start and are trading in red in early deals on Thursday as investors continued to book profit in technology stocks like TCS and Infosys on worries that strength in the rupee after inflation data may persist and hurt revenues. However, losses remained capped as some comfort came in with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last leg of 3-nation tour in Canada saying that there is an atmosphere of trust in India and there is one solution to all the problems and that is development.

Global cues too remained supportive; the US markets bounced back and ended higher in last session supported by rally in energy sector stocks. Though, there were mixed set of economic data with reports showing a bigger than expected rebound in homebuilder confidence but a bigger than expected drop in industrial production. The Asian markets were trading mostly in the green at this point of time, rebounding from their last session’s fall, as materials companies and energy producers led gains.

Back home, on the sectoral front, oil and gas, consumer durables and auto witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while healthcare, banking and realty remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were reeling under pressure, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 1176 shares on the gaining side against 785 shares on the losing side while 67 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28701.03, down by 98.66 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 28697.16 and 28876.23. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.35%, while Small cap index down by 0.41%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.47%, Consumer Durables up by 0.12%, Auto up by 0.06% and Metal up by 0.06% while, Healthcare down by 0.99%, Bankex down by 0.88%, Realty down by 0.78%, IT down by 0.74% and Capital Goods down by 0.68% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 1.67%, Hindalco up by 1.36%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.12%, Reliance Industries up by 1.04% and Tata Motors up by 0.95%. On the flip side, Sesa Sterlite down by 1.67%, Cipla down by 1.38%, Wipro down by 1.38%, TCS down by 1.30% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.24% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Lauding Modi’s government efforts, Deputy US Trade Representatives Robert W Holleyman underscored that series of reforms taken by the government in recent months were crucial steps around open, predictable and rules based reform. However, he insisted that more reforms were required to attract foreign investments in particular those from the US.

While, pointing to slew of economic reforms taken by the government, including that of increasing FDI in the insurance sector, the senior official highlighted that he observed a positive trend across all proposed rules and across concerned ministries and that trend was to increase transparency and predictability.

However, in his remarks on 'One Year Later Indo-US Trade- Expectations, Apprehensions and Solutions' organized by the US India Business Council (USIBC), Holleyman argued that the government was required to take more steps to improvement business environment in the country and make rules open and predictable. He also called for continued improvement in regulatory and legal sector.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8713.95, down by 36.25 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 8706.50 and 8760.00. There were 13 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cairn India up by 2.33%, Hindalco up by 1.70%, ONGC up by 1.69%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.14% and Reliance Industries up by 1.07%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 2.67%, Ambuja Cement down by 1.90%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.85%, Asian Paints down by 1.75% and Bank Of Baroda was down by 1.74% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 2.08 points or 0.11% to 1,842.21, Jakarta Composite rose 9.27 points or 0.17% to 5,423.81, KOSPI Index advanced 10.46 points or 0.49% to 2,130.42, Hang Seng gained 55.22 points or 0.2% to 27,674.04, Shanghai Composite added 79.77 points or 1.95% to 4,163.93 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 100.72 points or 1.06% to 9,640.78. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 35.65 points or 0.18% to 19,834.11 and Straits Times was down by 9.58 points or 0.27% to 3,530.37.