Benchmarks continue lackadaisical trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued their lackadaisical trade in red hovering near the neutral line in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters. The sentiments were under pressure despite Paris-based think tank Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) stated that Indian economy is witnessing stable growth momentum and mixed trends are seen in other parts of the world including China and the US. Traders were seen piling position in Metal, Consumer Durables and Power stocks while selling was witnessed in Realty, TECK and IT sectors stocks. Hectic buying activity was witnessed in banking space after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced that banks can undertake a strategic debt restructuring of a stressed assets by converting loan dues into equity shares. In scrip specific development, Cairn India was trading in red amid reports that metal and mining giant Vedanta is considering merger of the company with itself.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in red while the European markets were trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below the psychological 8,050 and 26,600 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1019:1420 while 110 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26522.16, down by 0.93 points after trading in a range of 26446.50 and 26604.65. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.23%, while Small cap index down by 0.09%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.07%, Consumer Durables up by 0.79%, Power up by 0.35%, INFRA up by 0.29% and Bankex up by 0.21% while, Realty down by 0.92%, TECK down by 0.62%, IT down by 0.59%, Capital Goods down by 0.26% and Auto down by 0.24% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 3.47%, Hindalco up by 2.12%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.55%, Tata Motors up by 1.45% and Axis Bank up by 1.23%.

On the flip side, Cipla down by 2.41%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 2.11%, Sun Pharma down by 1.66%, ONGC down by 1.09% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.73% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, government has kick started the process of auctioning 10 coal blocks in the third tranche, inviting bids from companies engaged in sectors like steel, cement and captive power generation. The government has directed the nominated authority to undertake the auction of schedule II & III coal mines to eligible companies. Of the total estimated geological reserves of 858.19 million tones, the mines are having extractable coal of about 356.245 million tonnes and are located in Maharashtra, MP, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

Two mines will be auctioned under schedule II category (producing) mines, while in the schedule III (ready to produce) eight mines will be put on offer. The two mines in schedule II category are MarkiMangli-I mine in Maharashtra and Parbatpur-Central mine in Jharkhand. Both are explored blocks having extractable reserves of 62.12 million tonnes.

The eight mines in the schedule III category are Dongri Tal-II mine (Madhya Pradesh), KosarDongergaon (Maharashtra), Margi Mangli-IV (Maharashtra), Majra (Maharashtra), Chitarpur (Jharkhand), Bhaskarpara (Chhattisgarh), Sondiha (Chhattisgarh) and Jamkhani (Odisha). 

The government has so far auctioned 29 coal blocks in two tranches to private companies and garnered over Rs 2 lakh crore. The Supreme Court in September last year had cancelled allocation of 204 coal mines allocated to companies without auction.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8033.40, down by 10.75 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 8007.55 and 8057.15. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 3.25%, Hindalco up by 1.95%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.56%, Tata Motors up by 1.43% and HDFC up by 1.26%.

On the flip side, Cairn India down by 4.70%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.71%, Cipla down by 2.53%, Bosch down by 2.42% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 2.08% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 360.89 points or 1.76% to 20,096.30, Hang Seng decreased 326.76 points or 1.2% to 26,989.52, Taiwan Weighted decreased 176.56 points or 1.88% to 9,191.87, Jakarta Composite decreased 116.92 points or 2.33% to 4,898.07, Straits Times decreased 21.28 points or 0.64% to 3,299.05, Shanghai Composite decreased 18.35 points or 0.36% to 5,113.54, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 7.77 points or 0.45% to 1,731.68 and KOSPI Index decreased 1.16 points or 0.06% to 2,064.03.

The European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 69.31 points or 0.63% to 10,995.61, France’s CAC decreased 19.92 points or 0.41% to 4,837.74 and UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 1.92 points or 0.03% to 6,788.12.