Benchmarks add losses; Nifty slips below 8250 mark

Indian bourses adding losses, continued to trade in red in the late morning session, with the Sensex losing over 150 points and Nifty falling below the 8250 level, due to declines in blue chip stocks ahead of tomorrow’s monthly expiry in derivatives segment amid a weak trend at other Asian bourses. Besides, lack of buying interest coupled with some speculative selling after yesterday’s late brief rally exerted pressure on the markets. Sentiments were weighed down after Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian statement that India is 'a very frustratingly robust democracy' where unleashing “big bang” reforms is not easy given the multiple centres of veto power. Further, investors turned cautious after India once again missed the power generation capacity addition target in last fiscal, making it the second straight year when the targets were not achieved.

On global front, Asian stocks sank as investors braced for a U.S. growth report and Fed policy statement that are expected to provide the latest signs of slowing momentum in the world's biggest economy. Back home, Indian rupee turned weak by 13 paise to 63.28 against the US dollar in early trade due to month end demand for the American currency from importers. Back on street, stocks from Realty and Banking counters were supporting the markets’ uptrend, while those from FMCG, Infrastructure and Oil & Gas counters were adding to the underlying cautious undertone. In scrip specific development, shares of KPIT Technologies have declined after reporting a 23% quarter on quarter decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 50.31 crore for the quarter ended March 2015. On the flip side, shares of Motherson Sumi Systems have surged after the company received its biggest ever order from the Germany car maker Daimler for an disclosed amount.

The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2156 stocks traded, 1154 stocks advanced, while 912 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27209.74, down by 186.64 points or 0.68% after trading in a range of 27176.54 and 27420.99. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.05%, while Small cap index up by 0.56%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.99% and Bankex up by 0.16% while, FMCG down by 1.31%, Infrastructure down by 0.69%, Oil & Gas down by 0.62%, Auto down by 0.62% and TECK down by 0.57% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 2.12%, Axis Bank up by 1.90%, GAIL India up by 1.56%, Tata Steel up by 1.44% and ICICI Bank up by 1.30%. On the flip side, Sesa Sterlite down by 3.45%, HDFC down by 2.60%, Tata Motors down by 2.07%, ITC down by 1.99% and TCS down by 1.41% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramanian has once again said that India is 'a very frustratingly robust democracy', which means that there are multiple centres of power, multiple centres of decision making, multiple centres of veto exercise in authorities. This is not a country where you can pull a switch and say let's do reform.'

Subramanian further stated that in robust democracy, you do not get big bang reforms. It is not easy to do this thing and the big bang reforms took place only when a country was facing a crisis. While pointing out India's 1991 economic crisis he added that one will find that big bang reforms do not happen except around crisis, when country is in a financial crisis then there is an opportunity for big bang reforms.

While talking about GDP growth figures he once again termed it 'puzzling' and said that the numbers have been 'bumped up' and it is a mystery how to interpret them. If you look at all indicators of Indian economy, like credit growth, tax collection, that do not seem to be consistent with the economy supposedly growing at 7.5 pc or so,' he said. Though, describing India as a 'recovering economy', the Chief Economic Adviser said that the country was growing 'well below its potential'.

CEA further asserted that India stands out as few bright spots in the world because China economy slowing down, Europe, Japan, Brazil are in trouble, Russia is not doing well. Therefore, India becomes a very attractive investment destination. Subramanian also expressed confidence that India could achieve sustainable double-digit growth on account of favourable external factors like decreasing oil prices.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8229.25, down by 56.35 points or 0.68% after trading in a range of 8219.20 and 8291.40. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Wipro up by 1.91%, Axis Bank up by 1.84%, GAIL India up by 1.75%, Lupin up by 1.64% and Tata Steel up by 1.60%. On the flip side, Sesa Sterlite down by 3.68%, Idea Cellular down by 3.21%, HDFC down by 2.58%, Tata Motors down by 2.35% and Cairn India down by 2.13% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the red; Hang Seng decreased 0.32%, Jakarta Composite tumbled 2.58%, Taiwan Weighted dropped 0.81%, Shanghai Composite slipped 0.03%, KOSPI Index shed 0.41%, Straits Times dipped 0.01% and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 0.41%. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 was up by 0.38%.