Markets languish at day’s low in absence of positive triggers

Losing strength gradually, local equity markets were languishing at day’s low point in absence of any positive triggers which could lift both Sensex and Nifty trading below psychologically crucial 28,650 and 8,700 levels respectively. While, frontline indices were sulking with losses of around 3/ 4 of a percent, broader indices were trading downbeat with losses of around 1%. Much of the cautiousness ahead of the result of IT bellwether TCS also was keeping market-participants on tenterhooks.

On the global front, Asian shares headed higher on Thursday as rising oil prices boosted energy and mining shares in the region. Lackluster economic indicators have been kind to risk assets this week, with Wednesday's weak Chinese data further boosting expectations of monetary stimulus by Beijing while soft U.S. data have also helped by dampening prospects of an early rate hike by the Federal Reserve.

Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were reeling under pressure, however stocks from Oil & Gas counter were the only exceptions.  Meanwhile, massive drubbing was witnessed by stocks from Realty, Information Technology and Capital Goods counters which were the top losers of the session. In stock-specific activity, sugar stocks like Bajaj Hindusthan, Balrampur Chini, Mawana Sugars, Sakthi Sugars  and Shree Renuka were buzzing on buyers' radar hoping for a hike in import duty. Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said he would write to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposing a hike in import duty. Meanwhile, oil marketing companies stocks also were in focus after rate cut in fuel prices. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 1687:859; while 95 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28605.77, down by 193.92 points or 0.67% after trading in a range of 28590.70 and 28876.23. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.92%, while Small cap index down by 0.98%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.45% while, Realty down by 1.71%, IT down by 1.62%, Capital Goods down by 1.29%, TECK down by 1.24% and Power down by 0.94% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.16%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.76%, GAIL India up by 0.71%, Tata Motors up by 0.67% and Hindalco up by 0.52%. On the flip side, Sesa Sterlite down by 3.04%, Wipro down by 2.27%, Infosys down by 2.17%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.89% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.74% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, marking the second reduction in rates this month, India’s state-run oil marketing companies, responding to lower crude oil prices reduced retail prices for petrol by Rs 0.80 a litre and retail price of diesel by Rs 1.30 a litre. Prior to this, the oil marketing companies had cut price of petrol by 49 paise and diesel by Rs 1.21 for every litre from April 2.  However, the new rates are effective from April 16, 2015.

With this price cut, petrol in Delhi will cost Rs 59.20 a litre as against the current Rs 60, while diesel will cost Rs 47.20 per litre as against Rs 48.50. The state run-oil marketing companies, Indian Oil  Corporation(IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) increased the retail prices for the fuel twice in February, but before that the price of petrol had been reduced ten times since August 2014 while that of diesel was reduced six times since October 2014. Cumulatively, petrol prices had been cut by Rs 17.11 per litre in 10 reductions since August and diesel by Rs 12.96 a litre since its deregulation in October.

The latest cut is the usual practice followed by state-owned fuel retailers; IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) of revising petrol and diesel prices on 1st and 16th of every month based on average imported cost and rupee-dollar exchange rate in the previous fortnight. Since last price revision, the trend of international prices of petrol and diesel and Rupee-US dollar exchange rate warrant a further downward revision in prices, the impact of which is being passed on to consumers with this price reduction.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8676.35, down by 73.85 points or 0.84% after trading in a range of 8673.00 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 3.67%, ONGC up by 2.22%, Idea Cellular up by 1.28%, Hindalco up by 0.78% and Tata Motors up by 0.64%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 3.41%, Sesa Sterlite down by 2.79%, Ultratech Cement down by 2.70%, PNB down by 2.49% and Asian Paints down by 2.44% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly higher; with FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI trading higher by 2.08 points or 0.11% to 1,842.21; Jakarta Composite trading higher by 8.42 points or 0.16% to 5,422.97; Nikkei 225 trading higher by 16.01 points or 0.08% to 19,885.77; KOSPI Index trading higher by 19.94 points or 0.94% to 2,139.90; Hang Seng trading higher by 44.71 points or 0.16% to 27,663.53; Shanghai Composite trading higher by 93.22 points or 2.28% to 4,177.38 and Taiwan Weighted trading higher by 116.81 points or 1.22% to 9,656.87. On the flip side, Straits Times down by 12.88 points or 0.36% to 3,527.07 was the lone loser in the Asian pack.