Benchmarks extend losses; Metal, Auto drag

Indian equity markets extended their losses and continued their weak trade in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters. The sentiments were on pessimistic note after a RBI sponsored survey stated that the economy is expected to grow at a rate of 7.8% in the current fiscal, a shade lower than earlier forecast of 7.9%. Investors also turned cautious on report that FDI in India declined by sharp 40% year-on-year to $2.11 billion in March 2015, compared to $3.53 billion in March 2014. Traders were seen piling position in Oil & Gas, Realty and Capital Goods stocks while selling was witnessed in Metal, Auto and Consumer Durables sectors stocks.  On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mixed while the European markets were trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below the psychological 8,100 and 26,700 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 984:1515 while 100 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26622.67, down by 214.53 points or 0.80% after trading in a range of 26565.65 and 26948.84. 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 0.43%, while Small cap index down by 0.54%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.14%, Realty up by 0.10% and Capital Goods up by 0.08% while, Metal down by 1.89%, Auto down by 1.37%, Consumer Durables down by 1.35%, Bankex down by 0.95% and PSU down by 0.89% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 1.59%, Reliance Industries up by 0.79%, Larsen & Toubro up by 0.37% and Axis Bank up by 0.30%.

On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 3.26%, Vedanta down by 2.88%, ICICI Bank down by 2.77%, Sun Pharma down by 2.31% and Tata Motors down by 2.02% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, oil ministry in its annual report has stated that India's natural gas output is likely to rise by 50 percent to 146.87 million standard cubic meters per day by 2018-19 on account of higher production from state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) fields. The ministry further added that domestic gas production will rise from 98.15 mmscmd in 2014-15 to 99.87 mmscmd in the current fiscal.

The oil ministry further detailed that in 2016-17, the output will climb to 112.95 mmscmd and finally to 146.87 mmscmd in 2018-19. Bulk of the incremental output will come from ONGC which will see production rise to 65.75 mmsmd in 2014-15 to 96.38 mmscmd. ONGC production will include 4.66 mmscmd from New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) block KG-DWN-98/2 or KG-D5 in 2017-18 and 12.05 mmsmcd in 2018-19. The other state owned company Oil India will see gas production rise from 7.78 mmscmd last fiscal to 10.96 mmscmd in four years.

The ministry has projected the output from fields operated by private firms like Reliance Industries to rise from 24.62 mmscmd in 2014-15 to 39.53 mmscmd in 2018-19. It has further projected the demand to increase by nearly 30 per cent to 523 mmscmd in 2018-19 from 405 mmscmd in 2014-15. Gas demand is expected to climb 10 per cent in the current fiscal to 446 mmscmd.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8071.95, down by 63.15 points or 0.78% after trading in a range of 8060.25 and 8160.05. There were 13 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 2.27%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.79%, Wipro up by 1.57%, Ultratech Cement up by 0.96% and Bosch up by 0.71%.

On the flip side, NMDC down by 5.54%, PNB down by 3.74%, Vedanta down by 3.43%, Tata Steel down by 3.19% and ICICI Bank down by 2.79% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were showing a mixed trend; Shanghai Composite rose by 0.76%, Nikkei 225 gained 0.07%, Straits Times was up by 0.01% and KOSPI Index was up by 0.47%.

On the other hand, Hang Seng declined by 0.38%, KLSE Composite dipped 0.20%, Jakarta Composite lost 0.64% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 2.18%.

European Markets were trading in the red; Germany's DAX dropped 1.61%, UK's FTSE declined 1.34% and France’s CAC was down by 2.12%.