Benchmarks languish at day’s low on continued selling pressure

Barometer gauges which have been on selling spree since early deals morning were trading near day’s low point, on sustained selling activities by both funds and retail investors in absence of any positive triggers and amidst worries of crucial goods and services tax (GST) and Land bill not getting through in the current session of parliament after being referred to select panel. Besides, cautiousness ahead of the release Industrial production figures for the month of March and Retail inflation data for the month of April too was keeping market-participants on the tenterhooks, adding to the pessimistic environment. Languishing at day’s low, both Sensex and Nifty were trading below crucial 27050 and 8,200 levels respectively, with colossal losses of over 1.50%. Meanwhile, the session also was daunting for broader indices trading with loss in the range of 1.20-1.60%.

On the global front, Asian shares experienced mixed fortunes, while European markets made a negative start over the prospects for a deal on Greece's debts. On Monday, euro-zone finance ministers met in Brussels to discuss the final Euro 7.2bn tranche of Greece's Euro 240bn EU/IMF bailout.

Closer home, with across the board selling pressure, none of the sectoral indices were spared in green, stocks from banking, Oil & Gas and Metal counters were the top losers of the session. Banking stocks were witnessing much of drubbing ahead of the release of April CPI data, which will guide RBI’s decision on interest rates in its upcoming monetary policy meet. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 1674:584; while 83 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27017.25, down by 490.05 points or 1.78% after trading in a range of 27000.07 and 27502.91. There were 3 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.61%, while Small cap index lost 1.22%.

The losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex down by 2.48%, Oil & Gas down by 2.46%, Metal down by 2.42%, Power down by 2.27%, Realty down by 2.10%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 3.63%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.34% and Coal India up by 0.16%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 4.87%, Tata Steel down by 4.35%, BHEL down by 3.73%, ICICI Bank down by 3.53% and Reliance Industries down by 2.83% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid signs of improvement in the general economic conditions, car sales grew 18% in April, the fastest rate in the last 30 months. According to data reported by the industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam), car sales volumes in April were at 1.6 lakh units, higher than 1.35 lakh units sold in the same month last year. The new models launched by companies have also resulted in creating demand. These include Honda's Mobilio, Tata's Bolt and Zest, Maruti's Ciaz and Hyundai's Elite i20.

As per SIAM’s data, passenger vehicle sales were up 15.83% in the domestic market, the seventh straight month of growth. The industry produced 1,909,327 vehicles (all categories) in April 2015 as against 1,861,874 in April 2014, registering a marginal growth of 2.55 per cent. The medium and heavy commercial vehicle segment (M&HCV) too saw positive growth for its ninth straight month, M&HCV sales were up 24.94% at 19,277 units, while those of LCV were down 3.82% at 26,595 units.

Although, the car sales numbers surged to their 30 months high, they were much lower than the 2.33 lakh units sold at the peak of the industry in March 2012. The condition was even worse for the motorcycle segment. In April, motorcycle sales were down 3% at 8.8 lakh units against 9 lakh units in the same month of the previous year, it was the seventh straight month of decline in sales. The overall two wheeler category witnessed a de-growth of 2.77%  to 8,81,751 units in April 2015 when compared to 9,06,909 units in the year ago period. The impact of unseasonal rains is clearly showing its impact on the demand for the volume-heavy motorcycles, and a sub-normal monsoon can hit the demand for cars too.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8165.95, down by 159.30 points or 1.91% after trading in a range of 8158.75 and 8326.65. There were 2 stocks advancing against 48 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 3.73% and Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.00%. On the flip side, Bank Of Baroda down by 6.10%, Vedanta down by 5.15%, Tata Steel down by 4.47%, BHEL down by 3.69% and ICICI Bank down by 3.59% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; with Nikkei 225 trading higher by 3.93 points or 0.02% to 19,624.84; Taiwan Weighted trading higher by 17.01 points or 0.18% to 9,680.73; Jakarta Composite trading higher by 31.22 points or 0.6% to 5,203.70 and Shanghai Composite trading higher by 35.95 points or 0.83% to 4,369.53.

On the flip side, Hang Seng trading lower by 101.03 points or 0.36% to 27,617.17; Straits Times trading lower 12.88 points or 0.37% to 3,457.92; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI trading lower 4.19 points or 0.23% to 1,801.30 and KOSPI Index trading lower 0.61 points or 0.03% to 2,096.77.

European markets got off to a negative start; with UK’s FTSE 100 trading lower by 37.89 points or 0.54% to 6,991.96; France’s CAC trading lower by 37.58 points or 0.75% to 4,990.29 and  Germany’s DAX trading lower by 36.38 points or 0.31% to 11,673.35