Benchmarks extend losses; Realty, Capital Goods drag

Indian equity markets extended losses in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters. Investors however took note of Pew Research report which stated that 74% of Indians they interviewed believed the country’s economic conditions are good, a 10% jump from a year ago. Stock-specific action was visible, as slew of companies reported their June quarter numbers during the trading session.Traders were seen piling position in Consumer Durables stocks while selling was witnessed in Realty, Capital Goods and Auto sector stocks. In scrip specific development, IDFC was trading firm after it received a banking licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in red, while the European markets were trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below the psychological 8,600 and 28,300 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1327:1334 while 120 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28232.00, down by 138.84 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 28187.08 and 28402.64. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.05%, while Small cap index down by 0.08%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE was Consumer Durables up by 0.69%, while Realty down by 1.10%, Capital Goods down by 0.79%, Auto down by 0.72%, Bankex down by 0.57% and Metal down by 0.53% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 1.27%, Hindalco up by 1.06%, TCS up by 0.96%, HDFC up by 0.72% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.69%.

On the flip side, Wipro down by 3.30%, ICICI Bank down by 3.29%, Lupin down by 2.75%, GAIL India down by 2.49% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.70% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government will put 10 more coal mines up for auction in the third phase in next month. The Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal replying to query in the parliament has said that the government has issued an order for auction of 10 coal mines with 858.19 million tonnes of geological reserves and 356.26 million tonnes of extractable reserves in the third tranche.

These 10 coal mines are earmarked for the non regulated sector - cement, iron and steel, captive power plants and the e-auction of these mines is proposed to be held from August 11-17, 2015, the process of allocation is scheduled to be completed by September 2015. Of the 10 blocks, most have requisite approvals. Five of these blocks were offered to private companies in the first two rounds of auction, but were later withdrawn as they received less than three bids. The government had issued the tenders inviting technical and financial bids for the mines from June 8 and the last date for submission of the documents was July 21.

The government has so far auctioned 67 coal blocks in two tranches to private companies and garnered over Rs 4 lakh crore. Tweaking the rules of auction - two phases of which saw 40 coal mines being awarded, the government has ruled out multiple bids. The Supreme Court had cancelled allocation of 204 coal mines to companies without auction terming the same as arbitrary and illegal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8551.80, down by 38.00 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 8544.40 and 8589.15. There were 16 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bank of Baroda up by 2.49%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.07%, Cipla up by 1.16%,  Hindalco up by 1.10% and IndusInd Bank up by 0.97%.

On the flip side, Wipro down by 3.57%, ICICI Bank down by 3.42%, Lupin down by 3.29%, GAIL India down by 2.66% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.97% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading in red; Hang Seng decreased 270.34 points or 1.06% to 25,128.51, Nikkei 225 decreased 139.42 points or 0.67% to 20,544.53, Shanghai Composite decreased 53.01 points or 1.29% to 4,070.91, Jakarta Composite decreased 50.49 points or 1.03% to 4,852.36, Taiwan Weighted decreased 23.26 points or 0.26% to 8,767.86, KOSPI Index decreased 19.11 points or 0.93% to 2,045.96, Straits Times decreased 5.5 points or 0.16% to 3,350.87 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 2.51 points or 0.15% to 1,719.93.

The European markets were trading in green; Germany’s DAX increased 15.66 points or 0.14% to 11,527.77, France’s CAC increased 27.42 points or 0.54% to 5,114.16 and UK’s FTSE 100 increased 24.28 points or 0.36% to 6,679.29.