Markets trade near the lows of the day

Markets continue to trade weak with benchmarks losing further ground and trading below their crucial psychological levels of 28250 (Sensex) and 8550 (Nifty). Traders remained concerned with the persisting weakness in the other global markets after China stepped up monetary stimulus and tightened rules around buying shares with borrowed money. Traders were also negatively reacting to the weak economic data, as 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, leading the trade deficit to four years high. Even Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement at International Monetary and Financial Committee that India was clearly on the recovery path was unable to give any respite to the markets. Back on the street, the broader indices too were trading with similar cut as of the benchmarks, while on the sectoral front, barring banking all other gauges were trading in red, led by IT, Tech, auto and realty. The market heavy weight, Reliance Industries despite reporting its highest quarterly net profit in more than seven years in March quarter was trading in red, putting additional pressure to the markets.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28218.39, down by 223.71 points or 0.79% after trading in a range of 28216.44 and 28539.46. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were witnessing deeper cut than the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.12%, while Small cap index down by 1.10%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.22%, Bankex up by 0.15% while, FMCG down by 1.87%, IT down by 1.81%, TECK down by 1.67%, Auto down by 1.25%, Realty down by 1.23% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 1.46%, ICICI Bank up by 1.40%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 0.65%, GAIL India up by 0.48% and SBI up by 0.33%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 2.53%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.08%, Coal India down by 1.94%, ITC down by 1.68% and Tata Motors down by 1.63% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, expressing his faith in the government’s development agenda has said 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.

FM pointed to the advance estimates that has placed the GDP growth for the full year of 2014-15 at 7.4 per cent and added that the government is committed to maintain overall macroeconomic conditions on a sustained basis so that the Indian economy is able to achieve and sustain growth of 8 per cent and above,

Addressing to the International Monetary and Financial Committee, Arun Jaitley said that the medium-term growth prospects have also improved following recent policy initiatives towards unlocking coal and other mining activity, liberalisation of FDI limits and a renewed thrust on public investment in infrastructure, which would help to improve the investment climate.

Finance Minister also mentioned that India's current account deficit (CAD) declined sharply from 4.8 per cent of GDP in 2012-13 to 1.7 per cent in 2013-14 and is expected to decline further to 1.3 per cent in 2014-15 and India has received large portfolio flows in the recent period - much higher than the current account deficit, which helped RBI to build up its foreign exchange reserves, which are now at $ 343 billion (as of April 3, 2015), up by $ 67 billion from the level at end-August 2013.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8543.35, down by 62.65 points or 0.73% after trading in a range of 8540.35 and 8619.95. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bank of Baroda up by 1.77%, Tata Steel up by 1.71%, ICICI Bank up by 1.55%, Power Grid Corpn up by 1.40% and BPCL up by 1.17%. On the flip side, NMDC down by 3.22%, Infosys down by 2.51%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.20%, Idea Cellular down by 2.18% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.73% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were mostly in red barring, Nikkei 225 which was up by 15.89 points or 0.08% to 19,668.77 and Shanghai Composite surging by 47.46 points or 1.11% to 4,334.75.

On the other hand, Hang Seng was down by144.99 points or 0.52% to 27,508.13, Jakarta Composite lost 22.69 points or 0.42% to 5,387.95, Straits Times was lower by 16.94 points or 0.48% to 3,508.25, Taiwan Weighted declined by 15.29 points or 0.16% to 9,555.64, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI lost 2.23 points or 0.12% to 1,843.63 and KOSPI Index was tad lower by 0.33 points or 0.02% to 2,143.17.