Markets continue to trade near the lows of the day

Markets continue to trade near the lows of the day in early noon session, lacking any supportive cues, while there is cautiousness ahead of the April series F&O expiry and the outcome of the US Federal Reserve’s policy meeting. Some good earnings from the telecom pack failed to impress the markets much and weak trend at other Asian markets too kept dampening the sentiments. Traders were also concerned with the government back-tracking from its resolve to take up the GST bill for consideration on Wednesday, and rescheduling it to next week, with the main opposition party Congress deciding to hold fresh rounds of strategy meeting on their stand. Back on street, the broader indices continued to outperform the benchmarks. On the sectoral front, while the realty, consumer durables, healthcare and banking stocks were averting any serious fall, the slump in FMCG, IT, Technology and oil & gas stocks were dragging the markets lower.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27251.03, down by 145.35 points or 0.53% 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 in green were outperforming the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.21%, while Small cap index gained 0.81%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.80%, Consumer Durables up by 0.70%, Bankex up by 0.41%, while FMCG down by 1.34%, INFRA down by 0.55%, TECK down by 0.49%, Oil & Gas down by 0.46% and Metal down by 0.43% were the losing indices.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 2.53%, ICICI Bank up by 1.84%, Wipro up by 1.57%, GAIL India up by 1.49% and Tata Steel up by 1.48%. On the flip side, Sesa Sterlite down by 3.59%, HDFC down by 2.18%, Tata Motors down by 2.12%, ITC down by 2.07% and Hindalco down by 1.60% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India has once again missed the power generation capacity addition target in last fiscal, making it the second straight year when the targets were not achieved. The Standing Committee on Energy in its report stated that the electricity generation stood at 15,935 MW (till February 2015), against the target of 17,830 MW in the fiscal 2014-15, similarly, during the 2013-14, 17,825 MW of power was produced against a target of 18,432 MW production. However, the country surpassed the capacity addition target in 2012-13. The target was 17,956.3 MW against which 20,622.8 MW was generated. A lion’s share of 20,121.8 MW was contributed by thermal power plants.

Ministry of Power pointing to the reasons of under achievement the target said the major difficulties faced in the capacity addition programme were delays in land acquisition, poor performance by civil contractors, delays in supplies by BHEL and contractual disputes, while the hydro power projects were delayed due to law and order problems, poor geology, flash floods and difficult terrain, delay in forest clearances, among others.

The Power Ministry has however said that as part of remedial measures, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) is monitoring power projects through frequent site visits and critical study of monthly progress reports and the Ministry is also conducting periodic review of the issues related to supply of power equipment from BHEL.

The central government is also coordinating with the state governments on the progress of projects in their respective states. The capacity addition target for the 12th plan period (2012-17) is estimated at 88,537 MW comprising 26,182 MW in the central sector, 15,530 MW in the state sector and 46,825 MW in the private sector respectively.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8242.05, down by 43.55 points or 0.53% after trading in a range of 8219.20 and 8291.40. There were 14 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 2.57%, GAIL India up by 1.77%, ICICI Bank up by 1.77%, Lupin up by 1.73% and Tata Steel up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Sesa Sterlite down by 3.85%, Idea Cellular down by 3.05%, Cairn India down by 2.32%, HDFC down by 2.22% and ITC down by 2.18% were the top losers.

Most of the Asian markets, barring Shanghai Composite which was up by 13.24 points or 0.3% to 4,489.45 and Nikkei 225 that gained 75.63 points or 0.38% to 20,058.95, were trading in red.

Jakarta Composite slumped by 135.43 points or 2.58% to 5,106.73, Taiwan Weighted lost 103 points or 1.03% to 9,853.83, Hang Seng was down by 37.33 points or 0.13% to 28,405.42, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI declined by 7.63 points or 0.41% to 1,847.43, KOSPI Index was lower by 5.04 points or 0.23% to 2,142.63 and Straits Times was down by 2.72 points or 0.08% to 3,492.37.