Selling intensifies on Dalal Street in noon deals

Bloodbath continued on Dalal Street in afternoon deals with frontline gauges breaching their crucial 27,750 (Sensex) and 8,450 (Nifty) levels amid reports that market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) may review the participatory notes (P-Notes) norms. Depreciation in Indian rupee too dampened the sentiments. The rupee weakened 5 paise to 64.09 against the US dollar in early trade today at the Interbank Foreign Exchange following gains in the American currency against major currencies globally. Softening commodity prices and disappointing quarterly earnings also weighed down sentiments.

Selling got intensified following weak opening of European counters as the IMF and European Commission has said that representatives of Greece's creditors will begin talks in Athens on a third bailout package to the debt-swamped Greek government. All the Asian markets were trading in red at this point of time on the back of offshore declines and as the fall in commodity prices continues to sap risk appetite. Back home, selling was both brutal and wide-based as none of sectoral indices on BSE were spared. Counters, which featured in the list of worst performers, include capital goods, metal and banking. The broader indices too were reeling under pressure, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 1,042 shares on the gaining side against 1,462 shares on the losing side while 101 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27730.01, down by 382.30 points or 1.36% after trading in a range of 27727.21 and 28117.65. There were 3 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.85%, while Small cap index down by 0.76%.

The losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods down by 2.04%, Metal down by 1.99%, Bankex down by 1.60%, INFRA down by 1.44% and Auto down by 1.31%, while there were no gainers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 0.97%, NTPC up by 0.80% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.75%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 4.07%, Tata Motors down by 3.75%, Hindalco down by 3.48%, ONGC down by 2.84% and Bharti Airtel down by 2.77% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to expand the steel industry’s product portfolio, to develop more value added products and to help in maintaining long term sustainability, Steel Ministry approved 83 R&D projects worth Rs 696.27 crore in 2014-15. To promote R&D in steel, Centre constituted an Empowered Committee (EC) under Steel Secretary for approval of R&D projects. During the fiscal, EC met 24 times and approved 83 R&D projects with Steel Development Fund (SDF) assistance of Rs 389.63 crore. Out of 83 R&D projects, 47 projects have completed, and 11 projects were stopped following mid-term review whereas 25 projects are in various stages of progress.

Further, the government is encouraging the PSU’s and private firms in steel sector to work on R&D projects mostly on problems relating to utilization of low grade ore and high ash coal. It has recommended large steel firm to enhance R&D investments up to 1% of their total sales turnover.

Besides, Steel Ministry is facilitating for setting up of Steel Research and Technology Mission of India (SRTMI) and is contributing 50% in the corpus. In-principle nod for setting up of SRTMI has been given and CEOs of major Indian steel firms have signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Steel Ministry for participation and financial contribution in the initiative with an initial corpus of Rs 200 crore.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8415.75, down by 105.80 points or 1.24% after trading in a range of 8412.40 and 8492.20. There were 8 stocks advancing against 42 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra up by 1.58%, Grasim Industries up by 1.34%, Cipla up by 1.17%, Asian Paints up by 1.04% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.83%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 4.09%, Hindalco down by 3.75%, Tata Motors down by 3.51%, Idea Cellular down by 2.97% and ONGC down by 2.72% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red; Hang Seng declined 784.35 points or 3.12% to 24,344.16, Shanghai Composite tumbled 313.54 points or 7.7% to 3,757.37, Taiwan Weighted decreased 211.18 points or 2.41% to 8,556.68, Nikkei 225 shed 194.43 points or 0.95% to 20,350.10, Jakarta Composite dipped 38.31 points or 0.79% to 4,818.28, Straits Times dropped 32.52 points or 0.97% to 3,320.13, KOSPI Index slipped 7.15 points or 0.35% to 2,038.81 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 3.07 points or 0.18% to 1,717.69.

European Markets were trading in the red; Germany’s DAX lost 0.56%, France’s CAC declined 0.55% and UK’s FTSE was down by 0.07%.