Benchmarks trade lower in early deals on Monday

Indian equity benchmarks have made a cautious start and are trading lower in early deals as investors remained on sidelines ahead of F&O expiry on Thursday. Sentiments also remained dampened on report that foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth a net Rs 775.46 crore on Friday, 24 April 2015. Depreciation in Indian rupee too dampened the sentiments. The rupee shed 21 paise to hit a four-month low of 63.77 against the US dollar in early trade today at the Interbank Foreign Exchange due to continued demand for the American currency from importers. Moreover, investors failed to draw any sense of relief with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement in order to contain the adverse fall out of MAT levy on foreign investors that the Indian government will set up a high- level committee to sort out the taxations issues of the past and make the system predictable.

On the global front, the US markets ended higher in last session supported by some good earnings and reports of increase in durable goods orders with major averages finishing the week at all-time highs. The Asian markets were trading mixed at this point of time, with some indices surging by over a percent, advancing for a fifth day.

Back home, on the sectoral front, power remained the lone gainer in trade, while healthcare, consumer durables 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 471 shares on the gaining side against 1,488 shares on the losing side while 57 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27295.50, down by 142.44 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 27295.14 and 27567.28. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.79%, while Small cap index slumped by 2.31%.

The lone gaining sectoral index on the BSE was Power up by 0.04%, while Healthcare down by 2.81%, Consumer Durables down by 2.28%, Realty down by 1.79%, IT down by 1.17% and Capital Goods down by 1.13% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 1.27%, Sesa Sterlite up by 0.95%, Tata Motors up by 0.89%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.68% and ICICI Bank up by 0.58%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 2.15%, Cipla down by 1.87%, SBI down by 1.87%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.71% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.50% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) in its release on the annual performance of the Indian gem & jewellery sector has said that Gem and jewellery exports fell by a marginal 0.62% in financial year 2014-15, due to a 5.5% fall in outbound shipments of cut and polished diamonds, but the gold jewellery segment rebounded with a 17.8% rise. The export was $39.9 billion in 2014-15, as compared to $40.15 bn the previous year. However, in rupee terms, export rose marginally to Rs 243,885.8 crore from Rs 242,837 crore a year before.

The overall gross imports of Gems & Jewellery at $ 31470.78 million up by 1.29% (2.65% in Rs. term) as compared to $ 31071.18 million. In rupee terms it was worth Rs 192074.99 crores showing a growth of 2.65% compared to Rs. 187109.89 crores for the same period previous year.

The overall gross export of Cut & Polished diamonds stood at $ 23160.18 million, showing a decline of 5.46% as compared to $ 24498.48 million. In rupee terms the exports were worth Rs. 141514.28 crores, down by 4.50% to Rs 148185.20 crores for the same period of previous year, mainly due to decline in volume terms of the gross Import of rough diamonds. The gross imports of Cut & Polished diamonds stood at $ 6943.07 million up by 6.15% as compared to $ 6540.77 million for the same period of previous year. In rupee terms the growth was of 7.11% to Rs 42410.19 crores from Rs 39585.97 crores in the last fiscal.

The Indian gem & jewellery exports which forms nearly 13 per cent of India’s overall merchandise export made a contribution of $ 39898.81 million to India's coffers in terms of foreign exchange earnings. The downturn in China, unrest in West Asia, slowdown in Europe and the depreciation of the Russian ruble affected exports.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8261.75, down by 43.50 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 8260.95 and 8334.45. There were 19 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 1.60%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.33%, Idea Cellular up by 1.26%, Sesa Sterlite up by 1.07% and Zee Entertainment up by 0.94%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 3.28%, Lupin down by 3.22%, Sun Pharma down by 2.46%, Asian Paints down by 2.35% and BPCL down by 2.08% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Straits Times increased 3.2 points or 0.09% to 3,516.20, Taiwan Weighted rose 54.73 points or 0.55% to 9,968.01, Shanghai Composite added 82 points or 1.87% to 4,475.69 and Hang Seng was up by 365.74 points or 1.3% to 28,426.72.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite tumbled 127.63 points or 2.35% to 5,307.73, Nikkei 225 decreased 38.01 points or 0.19% to 19,982.03, KOSPI Index shed 4.5 points or 0.21% to 2,155.30 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 0.55 points or 0.03% to 1,862.03.