Benchmarks continue to trade in red in late morning session

Local equity markets were trading somber with losses of around two percent on continued selling pressure in the absence of any positive triggers, which dragged both Sensex and Nifty below psychologically crucial 26,950 and 8,200 levels respectively. Besides, overnight losses in the US markets on worries about surging oil prices, poor trade data and growing tensions over the Greek debt crisis weighed on sentiments. Shares of mid and small-sized companies were too under pressure with both the mid-cap and small-cap indices down over 2% each on the bourses. Meanwhile, investors failed to draw any sense of relief with Minister of State (MoS) for Finance, Jayant Sinha statement that benign oil prices, likely monetary policy easing by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and lower inflation will help the Indian economy to grow in the range of 8.1- 8.5 per cent in the current fiscal. Further, the market participants would be keeping an eye on the developments in Parliament, especially with regard to the GST bill.

On global front, Asian stocks edged lower as investor sentiment was dented by losses on Wall Street and doubts about Greece's ability to repay debts due to the IMF this month. Further, Chinese markets rebounded from the previous day's sell-off. Back home, Indian rupee strengthened by 13 paise to 63.31 against the US dollar in the early trade on fresh selling of the American currency by exporters.

Back on street, all sectoral indices on the BSE were in the red with BSE Realty index emerging as the top loser down over 3% followed by PSU, Power and Metal indices among others. In scrip specific development, shares of Sun Pharma Advanced Research have declined on reporting a net loss of Rs 9.40 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 as compared to a net loss of Rs 2.51 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. On the flip side, shares of Tube Investments of India have rallied after its consolidated net profit more than doubled to Rs 148 crore for the quarter ended March 2015 (Q4), on the back of strong operational performance.

The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2167 stocks traded, 381 stocks advanced, while 1720 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26937.78, down by 502.36 points or 1.83% after trading in a range of 26868.45 and 27501.15. There were 1 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 2.11%, while Small cap index down by 2.13%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 3.14%, PSU down by 2.63%, Power down by 2.51%, Metal down by 2.46% and Capital Goods down by 2.37%, while there were no gaining indices on BSE.

The only gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 4.29%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 3.33%, NTPC down by 3.16%, Vedanta down by 2.96%, Cipla down by 2.91% and Axis Bank down by 2.83% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State (MoS) for Finance, Jayant Sinha has said that benign oil prices, likely monetary policy easing by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and lower inflation will help the Indian economy to grow in the range of 8.1- 8.5 per cent in the current fiscal.

The minister in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha said that the latest Economic Survey has indicated that the GDP growth rate at constant market prices is likely to be in the range of 8.1-8.5 per cent in 2015-16. Sinha elaborated that the increase in GDP growth can be expected on account of factors like benign oil prices, likely monetary policy easing facilitated by lower inflation and lower inflationary expectations.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley separately said that the government has initiated a large number of reforms in its first year of governance to encourage investments and the country has the potential to grow at 9-10%. He also said that a lot of investment is required in the infrastructure sector so that it has a beneficial impact on manufacturing. “It’s only then we can achieve a 9-10% growth rate and once we are able to do it for a decade or so, we can lower poverty rate.”

The GDP grew at 7.4 per cent in the previous fiscal and budget estimates, fiscal deficit to be brought down to 3.9 per cent of GDP in 2015-16, from 4.1 per cent in the previous fiscal. Arun Jaitley has also said the government is firmly committed to the path of fiscal consolidation.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8157.75, down by 167.05 points or 2.01% after trading in a range of 8140.50 and 8331.95. There were 2 stocks advancing against 48 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 4.34% and Cairn India up by 0.26%. On the flip side, Ambuja Cement down by 4.14%, BPCL down by 3.89%, BHEL down by 3.53%, Bank Of Baroda down by 3.44% and NMDC down by 3.25% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in the red; KOSPI Index declined 1.59%, Taiwan Weighted slipped 0.01%, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 0.52%, Jakarta Composite shed 0.11% and Straits Times was down by 0.21%. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite increased 1.56% and Hang Seng was up by 0.92%.