Benchmarks trade in red on Monday morning

Indian equity market after making a positive start have entered into negative territory, now trading with the losses of around quarter a percent, which dragged Sensex and Nifty below psychologically crucial 28,450 and 8,600 levels respectively on weak global cues and in absence of any positive triggers. Sentiments were under pressure after the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that the total rainfall for the country so far has been 6% below the Long Period Average (LPA). Further, depreciation in Indian rupee against dollar too weighed down the markets. The rupee weakened by 7 paise to 63.54 against the US dollar in early trade today at the Interbank Foreign Exchange. Investors will take a cautious approach ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament that begins on July 21. The government is expected to introduce 8 new bills along with 11 pending bills that include the Land Bill as well as the GST bill. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 605.56 crore during the previous trading session on July 17, 2015, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

In scrip specific development, Federal Bank was trading lower after reporting 36% year-on-year (YoY) fall in its standalone net profit at Rs 141 crore on account of higher provisions for non-performing assets of a large customer.

On the global front, the US ended mostly higher on Friday following Google’s blockbuster results. Asian markets were trading mostly in red following the mixed cues from Wall Street and European markets.

Back home traders were piling position in Oil & Gas, Healthcare, Metal, Auto and INFRA, while selling was witnessed in Bankex, IT, Consumer Durables, Power and TECK. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1115: 688 while 64 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28421.37, down by 41.94 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 28361.96 and 28549.13. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.22%, while Small cap index was up by 0.07%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.35%, Healthcare up by 0.26%, Metal up by 0.22%, Auto up by 0.21% and INFRA up by 0.14%, while Bankex down by 0.43%, IT down by 0.32%, Consumer Durables down by 0.31%, Power down by 0.23% and TECK down by 0.10% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 1.23%, Tata Steel up by 0.91%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.82%, Hindalco up by 0.70% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.49%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 1.22%, Infosys down by 0.95%, Axis Bank down by 0.88%, BHEL down by 0.88% and GAIL India down by 0.56% were the top losers

Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave approval for redevelopment of 400 railways stations (A1 and A category) in metros and major cities besides pilgrim centres and tourist spots. Under the model ‘as is where is’, the parties coming through open bids will develop the station with their designs and business ideas, while zonal railways would permit the commercial development of real estate which include land and air space around the stations. This scheme will encourage innovative ideas from interested parties at no cost to the railways.

Finance Minister Jaitley detailing the scheme said that it is new process of giving contracts where any person with credentials can submit a development proposal to the government. That proposal will be put online and a second person can give suggestions to improve and beat that proposal.  The best proposal will be selected by an expert committee; the original proposer will be given a chance to match it, only in case it is an improvement on his proposal. If he is unable to match the competing proposal, the project will be awarded to the competing proposer.

Commenting on development Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said that, the existing process   for redevelopment are time consuming as they involve various steps which include, inception and pre-feasibility report’, appointment of architect, technical consultants, financial and legal consultants, in-principle approval of local authorities, request for qualification, short listing of bidders, and request for technical proposals, hence they added little success.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8589.45, down by 20.40 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 8570.85 and 8623.90. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 1.29%, Asian Paints up by 1.25%, Hindalco up by 1.07%, Idea Cellular up by 1.07% and Tata Steel up by 1.06%. On the flip side, ACC down by 2.62%, Tata Power down by 1.98%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.72%, Ambuja Cement down by 1.34% and HDFC down by 1.29% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 57.78 points or 0.23% to 25,357.49, Jakarta Composite decreased 31.96 points or 0.65% to 4,869.85, Shanghai Composite decreased 17.21 points or 0.43% to 3,940.15, KOSPI Index decreased 4.13 points or 0.2% to 2,072.66 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 2.56 points or 0.15% to 1,724.17

On the flip side, Straits Times increased 10.4 points or 0.31% to 3,363.85.

The markets in Japan and Indonesia are closed for public holidays.