Benchmarks trade lower on feeble global cues

Extending their losing streak to fourth straight session, Indian equity benchmarks have made a weak start and are trading in red with a cut of over half a percent in early deals on Monday. Sentiments remained dampened on reports that India’s exports contracted by 21.06 percent to $23.95 billion, while imports fell by 13.44 percent to $ 35.74 billion in March that led to trade deficit to its highest level in four months at $11.79 billion, as exports continued to fall, underscoring risks for growth prospects in Asia’s third largest economy. However, traders failed to get any sense of relief from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that Indian economy is now clearly on a recovery path with a 7.4 per cent growth in the first three quarters and the new government is committed to maintain overall macroeconomic conditions on a sustained basis.

Global cues too remained dampened with US markets suffering selloff in last session on getting some mixed economic data and worries over trade regulation change inChina. The Asian markets were trading mostly in the red at this point of time with some indices witnessing cuts of over half a percent, though the markets in mainland China are trading in green after the country stepped up monetary stimulus and tightened rules around buying shares with borrowed money.

Back home, on the sectoral front, consumer durables and healthcare witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while software, technology and auto 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 790 shares on the gaining side against 1,227 shares on the losing side while 90 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28286.55, down by 155.55 points or 0.55% after trading in a range of 28260.44 and 28539.46. There were 7 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.12%, while Small cap index down by 1.00%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.70% and Healthcare up by 0.30% while, IT down by 1.88%, TECK down by 1.65%, Auto down by 1.33%, Realty down by 1.26% and FMCG down by 0.87% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.04%, ICICI Bank up by 1.10%, Tata Steel up by 1.06%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 0.65% and NTPC up by 0.32%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 2.79%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.84%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.54%, Tata Motors down by 1.42% and Coal India down by 1.40% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, taking cues from the global price trends, the government has raised import tariff value of gold to $388 per 10 grams and reduced the import tariff on silver to $524 per kg. The import tariff value which is revised on a fortnightly basis taking into account global prices, stood at $ 385 per 10 grams of gold and $543 per kg for silver, during the last fortnight of March.

The notification for the import tariff value which is the base price at which customs duty is determined to prevent under-invoicing was issued by the designated body, the Central Board of Excise and Customs. Gold in Singapore, which normally sets the price trend on the domestic front, rose 0.4 per cent to $1,207.70 an ounce and silver 0.3 per cent to $16.40 an ounce. Gold is the second-largest import item for India after petroleum. Higher gold import bill adversely affects the country’s current account deficit.

In the global market gold prices have been under pressure in recent days as investors wager that Fed officials might raise interest rates as early as June if economic data continue to show improvement. The US central bank has kept rates pinned near zero since December 2008 but is widely expected to move borrowing costs higher in the second half of 2015. Further, the China's slowing economy too has added to downward pressure on the precious metal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8549.50, down by 56.50 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 8548.25 and 8619.95. There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 1.95%, BPCL up by 1.12%, Bank Of Baroda up by 1.10%, ICICI Bank up by 0.97% and Tata Steel up by 0.84%. On the flip side, NMDC down by 3.22%, Infosys down by 2.90%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.39%, Idea Cellular down by 2.26% and Tech Mahindra down by 2.04% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the red; Hang Seng decreased 81.52 points or 0.29% to 27,571.60, Jakarta Composite declined 19.16 points or 0.35% to 5,391.49, Straits Times shed 16.87 points or 0.48% to 3,508.32, Taiwan Weighted slipped 8.81 points or 0.09% to 9,562.12, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 2.57 points or 0.14% to 1,843.29 and KOSPI Index was down by 0.32 points or 0.01% to 2,143.18.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite increased 43.98 points or 1.03% to 4,331.28 and Nikkei 225 was up by 49.17 points or 0.25% to 19,702.05.