Market extend southward journey; Nifty breaches 8,150 mark

Indian equity benchmarks extended their southward journey in afternoon deals as sentiments remained downbeat after the Reserve Bank yesterday hinted that there may not be any more cuts in the near term, even as it cut the interest rate by 0.25 per cent for the third time this year. Sentiments of the market participants were dampened further after India’s services activities dropped for the first time in the span of thirteen month, largely due to decline in new order flows amid competitive pressure and natural disasters. Also, deficient monsoon forecast by the Met department, stoking fears of a drought, hit the domestic sentiment.

On the global front, a pessimistic trend in other Asian markets and overnight losses at the US market too weighed on the domestic sentiment. However, European markets have made a positive start with CAC, DAX and FTSE all trading higher in early deals.

Back home, selling was both brutal and wide-based as none of sectoral indices, barring software, on BSE were spared. Counters, which featured in the list of worst performers, include realty, fast moving consumer goods and power. The broader indices too were reeling under pressure, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 380 shares on the gaining side against 2,063 shares on the losing side while 64 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26805.98, down by 382.40 points or 1.41% after trading in a range of 26698.26 and 27276.22. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 2.31%, while Small cap index down by 3.28%.

The lone gaining sectoral index on the BSE was IT up by 0.26%, while Realty down by 8.52%, FMCG down by 3.98%, Power down by 2.98%, INFRA down by 2.91%, Consumer Durables down by 2.64% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 0.94%, Infosys up by 0.66%, TCS up by 0.45% and HDFC Bank up by 0.13%. On the flip side, ITC down by 5.28%, Tata Motors down by 4.75%, ICICI Bank down by 3.71%, Tata Power down by 3.40% and SBI down by 3.19% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while pushing for currency notes to be made in India from scratch, has made a case for greater use of plastic currency. He stated that 'The developed world has moved substantially to plastic currency and payment gateways. I think there is need for India and our determination is there to gradually take steps to move in that direction.'

To popularize the use of plastic money, the government had launched the RuPay debit card in 2012 through the National Payments Corp of India (NPCI). The card enables electronic payments at all banks and financial institutions, competing with international card providers like MasterCard, Visa and American Express.

Jaitley further stated that 'It's about time that we start at least printing our own currency with our own ink and paper. It is not merely symbolism. It also represents a thought process where there is a desire to bring back Indian manufacturing at a particular level.' Finance minister while inaugurating a paper-making line for bank notes at Hoshangabad and dispatching a consignment for printing Rs 1,000-denominated currency notes to the state-run security press at Nashik in Maharashtra, stressed that development of new facilities at Hoshangabad and Mysore would help in reducing reliance on imports for printing of currency notes.

Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha too advocated the cause and said there are 30 billion bank notes that are printed in India today and with the indigenous currency paper we should also aim to meet the global needs. He added that since India is moving quickly towards a cashless economy, the RBI will be soon issuing licences on Payments Bank. He said a cashless economy can facilitate volumes of transactions through a variety of institutions -- telecom operators or postal service-- and do transactions at a tremendously low cost.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8126.55, down by 109.90 points or 1.33% after trading in a range of 8094.15 and 8236.70. There were 8 stocks advancing against 42 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 0.95%, Infosys up by 0.77%, Tech Mahindra up by 0.70%, HCL Tech up by 0.51% and TCS up by 0.49%. On the flip side, ITC down by 5.32%, Tata Motors down by 4.63%, Bosch down by 4.30%, Cairn India down by 4.02% and ICICI Bank down by 3.65% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in the red; Nikkei 225 decreased 0.34%, Jakarta Composite was down by 1.50%, KOSPI Index decreased 0.74%, Shanghai Composite was down by 0.07%, and Taiwan Weighted was lower by 0.60%. On the other hand, Hang Seng gained 0.71% and Straits Times was higher by 0.13%.

European Markets were trading in the green; Germany's DAX rose 0.28%, UK's FTSE gained 0.02% and France's CAC was up by 0.12%.