Benchmarks continue lackadaisical trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets trimmed their losses and started hovering near neutral line in the late afternoon session on account of global fluctuations. The losses remained capped on reports of global agencies Standard & Poor’s and OECD who stated that India’s confidence level continues to grow  and the country is seeing stable growth momentum. Investors have started eyeing first quarter corporate results season which will kick off today with TCS announcing its Q1 results. Traders were seen piling position in Capital Goods, Power and Consumer Durables stocks while selling was witnessed in IT, Oil & Gas and TECK sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Bhushan Steel was locked at upper circuit limit after receiving lenders’ approval for long-term restructuring of about Rs 30,000 crore loans under a scheme of Reserve Bank of India.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in green, while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 8,350 and 27,600 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1628:986 while 103 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27681.25, down by 6.47 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 27601.01 and 27798.13. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.21%, while Small cap index up by 0.36%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 2.03%, Power up by 1.06%, Consumer Durables up by 1.02%, Realty up by 0.35% and INFRA up by 0.34% while, IT down by 1.22%, Oil & Gas down by 1.13%, TECK down by 0.77%, FMCG down by 0.35% and Auto down by 0.15% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 3.72%, Hindalco up by 2.80%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.25%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.95% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.90%.

On the flip side, Vedanta down by 2.46%, Infosys down by 1.73%, Tata Motors down by 1.60%, TCS down by 1.58% and Bajaj Auto down by 1.30% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has recently been taking various steps with a view to safeguard its large steelmakers from a flood of cheap imports. The government while last month increased duties on certain steel products by up to 2.5 percentage points, it has raised import tax to 10 percent from 7.5 percent on flat steel and to 7.5 percent from 5 percent for long steel products. Earlier, it had imposed anti-dumping duties ranging from $180 to $316 per tonne on some industrial-grade stainless steel.

The Steps taken by government may curb shipments into the country this year. However, these steps could see closing scores of small, local companies that process the metal. Steps will pile up more pressure on small steel processors accounting for almost 60 percent of the India’s overall steel sector, already grappling with faltering demand as the real estate sector slows.

These processors currently buy imported steel at up to 20 percent below India’s pricier, domestic steel, turning it into finished steel products for industrial use. Some associations have raised concern that if imports got reduced, the integrated steel mills would start charging higher prices, irrespective of international price trends ... secondary steel producers would not be able to survive.

In financial year 2015, India’s steel imports had jumped around 70 percent to over 9 million tonnes, with a surge of cheaper purchases from China accounting for about a third of the total. Besides, in the first two months of current financial year, country’s Imports increased by 55 percent to 1.7 MT.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8364.05, up by 1.00 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 8336.15 and 8400.30. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BHEL up by 3.40%, Hindalco up by 2.75%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.13%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.08% and PNB up by 1.97%.

On the flip side, BPCL down by 3.86%, Vedanta down by 2.30%, Tata Motors down by 1.74%, Infosys down by 1.70% and TCS down by 1.58% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 8.83 points or 0.52% to 1,704.66, KOSPI Index increased 11.6 points or 0.58% to 2,027.81, Nikkei 225 increased 117.86 points or 0.6% to 19,855.50, Shanghai Composite increased 202.14 points or 5.76% to 3,709.33 and Hang Seng increased 876.23 points or 3.73% to 24,392.79.

On the other hand, Taiwan Weighted decreased 61.98 points or 0.69% to 8,914.13, Jakarta Composite decreased 34.71 points or 0.71% to 4,836.86 and Straits Times decreased 10.02 points or 0.31% to 3,274.97.

The European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 36.37 points or 0.56% to 6,527.07, France’s CAC increased 53.2 points or 1.15% to 4,692.22 and Germany’s DAX increased 89.65 points or 0.83% to 10,836.95.