Benchmarks trade in red; FMCG, Auto drag

Indian equity markets trimmed losses and continued trade in red in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters. Investors were cautious ahead of US Federal Reserve’s two day policy meet which is likely to signal its stance on interest rates. Traders were seen piling positions in Realty, Bankex and IT stocks while selling was witnessed in FMCG, Auto and Infra sector stocks. In scrip specific development, KPIT Technologies is locked in lower circuit after reporting a 23% quarter on quarter decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 50.31 crore for the quarter ended March 2015, While Welspun Corps was locked at upper circuit limit after the company reported 11-fold jump in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended March 2015. CRISIL was trading in green after the company announced share buy-back price. The market may remain volatile this week as traders roll over positions in the Futures & Options (F&O) segment from the near month i.e. April 2015 series to next month i.e. May 2015 series. The near month April 2015 derivatives contracts will expire on Thursday i.e. April 30, 2015.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in red while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below the psychological 8,300 and 27,400 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1519:985 while 103 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27346.18, down by 50.20 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 27176.54 and 27438.96. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.55%, while Small cap index up by 1.13%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.00%, Bankex up by 0.73%, IT up by 0.72%, Consumer Durables up by 0.67%, TECK up by 0.41% while, FMCG down by 1.37%, Auto down by 0.40%, INFRA down by 0.17%, Metal down by 0.14%, Oil & Gas down by 0.07% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 2.94%, Wipro up by 2.32%, ICICI Bank up by 2.05%, Sun Pharma up by 2.02% and GAIL India up by 1.81%.

On the flip side, Sesa Sterlite down by 2.79%, ITC down by 2.10%, HDFC down by 2.02%, Tata Motors down by 1.65% and Hindalco down by 0.87% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a move aimed at improving ease of doing business in the country and checking diversion of urea, the government lifted the curb on importing industrial and technical grade urea. Earlier, the government allowed imports of urea, but only through state trading enterprises, India Potash, MMTC and STC. The imports of industrial and technical grade urea have been less due to diversion of urea meant for farm sector to industrial usage.

Industry body, Fertiliser Association of India (FAI) Director General Satish Chander welcomed this decision and stated that with this industry can now directly import urea for its usage and will not have to take government's permission.

India's urea imports went up 23% to 87.49 lakh tonnes last fiscal on higher demand. The country, which is among the world's top three consumers of urea had imported 70.88 MT of the fertiliser in 2013-14 and produces about 22 million tonnes (MT) of urea as against the annual domestic demand of 30 MT.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8290.55, up by 4.95 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 8219.20 and 8308.20. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ambuja Cement up by 3.45%, Ultratech Cement up by 3.23%, Axis Bank up by 3.14%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.33% and Wipro up by 2.30%.

On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 3.34%, Sesa Sterlite down by 2.88%, ITC down by 2.21%, HDFC down by 1.81% and Cairn India down by 1.54% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Jakarta Composite decreased 131.55 points or 2.51% to 5,110.61, Taiwan Weighted decreased 103 points or 1.03% to 9,853.83, Hang Seng decreased 42.41 points or 0.15% to 28,400.34, Straits Times decreased 8.22 points or 0.24% to 3,486.87, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 7.71 points or 0.42% to 1,847.35 and KOSPI Index decreased 5.04 points or 0.23% to 2,142.63. On the other hand, Shanghai Composite increased 0.41 points or 0.01% to 4,476.62. Japanese stock exchange is closed today on account of ‘Showa Day’ holiday.

The European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 9.96 points or 0.14% to 7,040.49, France’s CAC increased 10.14 points or 0.2% to 5,183.52 and Germany’s DAX increased 35.1 points or 0.3% to 11,846.76.