Markets continue to trade in red; healthcare and realty stocks drag

Indian markets are not getting any respite from their down fall and despite some fanatic attempts, continue to trade in red in the early noon session. Nifty below 8300 mark was still trading below its 200 days moving average. There is some short covering in blue-chip stocks that was supporting the markets to some extent, however profit taking in healthcare, realty and consumer durable gauges were restricting the benchmarks to move into green. Meanwhile, there are reports that the long-pending Bill on Goods and Services Tax (GST) may see light of the day as a possible truce with the Congress may allow the government to ensure passage of the GST bill, after it looked positively inclined with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reaching out to the party leadership over the weekend for ironing out differences over the proposed law. There were stock specific actions and some of the stocks like ICICI Bank and Maruti Suzuki have recovered ahead of their earnings on hopes of good numbers. India's largest automaker by revenue is expected to report 41 per cent YoY growth in its consolidated net profit. However, broader indices are not showing any signs of recovery and were reeling deep in red.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27336.53, down by 101.41 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 27210.10 and 27567.28. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices too continue to trade in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.39%, while Small cap index was lower by 2.35%.

The lone gaining sectoral index on the BSE was INFRA up by 0.26%, while Realty down by 2.37%, Consumer Durables down by 1.42%, PSU down by 1.04%, Oil & Gas down by 1.02%, IT down by 0.71% were the major losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sesa Sterlite up by 2.39%, NTPC up by 1.37%, Wipro up by 0.93%, Tata Motors up by 0.84% and Reliance Industries up by 0.78%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 2.88%, SBI down by 2.16%, BHEL down by 2.01%, Cipla down by 1.97% and HDFC down by 1.75% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitaraman highlighted that country failed to achieve its export targets of $340 billion set for 2014-15 due to economic slowdown in many countries across the world and that the markets were yet to fully recover from the financial crisis of 2007-08. However, Commerce Minister asserted that its ministry was all prepared to meet the future demand by improving the capacity building and by taking many initiatives.

Separately, Commerce Ministry unveiled that Finance Minister Arun Jaitely has agreed to review the new 14-page Income Tax return form to make it taxpayer-friendly and conceded that new trade Policy had been delayed by a year.

She stated that tax authorities had made several additions to the form for the assessment year 2015-16 seeking details about foreign travel, foreign assets and income from any source outside the country, details of all bank accounts held in India at any time during the previous year.

Further, she also reiterated that the Centre was committed to provide special status to Andhra Pradesh (AP) and that is ministry would take up the infrastructural development to transform announced Visakhapatnam and Bhimavaram as centres of excellence for international marine food exports markets. Sitaraman also said the Asian Development Bank has submitted its report on Visakhapatnam-Chennai industrial corridor, the operations on which would commence soon.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8262.15, down by 43.10 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 8221.05 and 8334.45. There were 18 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sesa Sterlite up by 2.54%, Idea Cellular up by 1.73%, NTPC up by 1.60%, Zee Entertainment up by 1.15% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.15%. On the flip side, Cairn India down by 3.25%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.92%, Asian Paints down by 2.85%, BPCL down by 2.54% and Bank Of Baroda down by 2.50% were the top losers.

Asian markets were showing mostly a positive trend, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was tad higher by 0.29 points or 0.02% to 1,862.87, Straits Times was up by 4.75 points or 0.14% to 3,517.75, Taiwan Weighted increased by 59.84 points or 0.6% to 9,973.12, Shanghai Composite surged by113.08 points or 2.57% to 4,506.77 and Hang Seng gained 433.49 points or 1.54% to 28,494.47.

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite slumped by 146.8 points or 2.7% to 5,288.56, Nikkei 225 lost 36.72 points or 0.18% to 19,983.32 and KOSPI Index was lower by 2.26 points or 0.1% to 2,157.54.