Markets stablise near the lowest point; Banking outperforms

Indian markets continue to trade near the lows of the day in noon session with the regional peers going for sharp selloff. The Chinese market that was bucking the trend since morning after regulators in the country banned the margin trading businesses of brokerages from taking part in umbrella trusts, and said that fund managers can lend shares for short selling, has given up early gains and is witnessing intense selling pressure. Back home, though, the domestic bourses are stablising, but continue to trade in a tight band with both the benchmarks witnessing cut of over half a percent. Traders are now concentrating on the domestic development, as the Budget session of Parliament has resumed and is expected to be stormy session with lots of important bills and Land acquisition amendment ordinance being tabled in Lok Sabha. Sentiments also remained cautious ahead of results of bluechip technology companies to be released tomorrow. The broader markets too is showing signs of recovery, albeit a slower one. On the sectoral front, while the banking continued to be in forefront, consumer durables and healthcare too have followed and were trading in green, however IT realty, tech and auto were still dragging the markets lower. Realty sectors even overlooked the global rating agency Fitch's report that the likely upturn in the country’s investment climate and reduction in interest rates will improve the property market by the end of March 2016.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28224.69, down by 217.41 points or 0.76% after trading in a range of 28186.92 and 28539.46. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices despite some recovery, too were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.95%, while Small cap index lost 1.04%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.88%, Bankex up by 0.48%, while FMCG down by 1.97%, IT down by 1.77%, TECK down by 1.63%, Realty down by 1.48%, Auto down by 1.21% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 2.29%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 2.23%, Tata Steel up by 1.68%, HDFC Bank up by 0.50% and GAIL India up by 0.18%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 3.43%, Reliance Industries down by 2.67%, Infosys down by 2.60%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.45% and Coal India down by 2.07% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has expressed deep disappointment over the non-implementation of IMF quota and governance reforms that would give it a greater say in the global crisis lender, matching the country's growing economic might.

The 2010 IMF quota reforms which were originally propelled by Washington, and the President Barack Obama's White House has repeatedly endorsed them, seeks to provide greater say to emerging economies like India and China at the Fund, where the US and large European countries command high influence. But the US Congress has refused to sign off on the deal, with some legislators not wanting to contribute more money to the IMF and others concerned about any erosion to the dominant US role at the fund.

Arun Jaitley said that governance reforms are required to ensure the International Monetary Fund’s credibility, legitimacy and effectiveness. He added that “A major challenge for emerging market economies is to raise growth by implementing growth critical structural reforms. The focus, in general, should be on encouraging infrastructure investment, strengthening the investment climate and improving human resource skills through education and training.” The Finance Minister said that at this juncture the global economy is facing some major challenges. “First, potential growth has declined in both the advanced and emerging market economies and needs to be raised.”

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8548.95, down by 57.05 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 8529.15 and 8619.95. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 2.37%, Lupin up by 2.30%, Ambuja Cement up by 2.23%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 2.15% and Bank Of Baroda up by 2.08%. On the flip side, NMDC down by 4.23%, Hero MotoCorp down by 3.45%, Reliance Industries down by 2.73%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.56% and Infosys down by 2.46% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were mostly in red barring KOSPI which was up by 3.21 points or 0.15% to 2,146.71. On the other hand, Hang Seng slumped by 563.82 points or 2.04% to 27,089.30, Shanghai Composite lost 70.22 points or 1.64% to 4,217.08, Straits Times was down by 21.7 points or 0.62% to 3,503.49, Jakarta Composite decreased by 19.23 points or 0.36% to 5,391.4, Nikkei 225 was down by18.39 points or 0.09% to 19,634.49, Taiwan Weighted lost 18.08 points or 0.19% to 9,552.85 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was tad lower by 0.75 points or 0.04% to 1,845.11

European Markets have made a positive start, France’s CAC was up by 36.17 points or 0.7% to 5,179.43, UK’s FTSE 100 gained 56.37 points or 0.81% to 7,051.00 and Germany’s DAX was higher by 100.09 points or 0.86% to 11,788.79.