Markets turn choppy, trade on a flat note giving up all the gains

Markets have turned choppy in the early noon session, losing all the gains gathered in morning trade. Traders are cautious with the weakness in the Chinese market, which led the global sell-off in last session and was once again down by around a percent in today’s trade. Though, some of the other markets in the region have recovered but, local markets were still lagging, with no major supportive cues on domestic front. The weakness in rupee too was weighing down the sentiments; the domestic currency has extended its losses for the fourth straight session on persistent dollar demand from banks and importers. IT and tech sector stocks were in jubilant mood with the dollar strength and good numbers from IT major TechMahindra. Power stocks were trading up while the metals were under influence of weak Chinese growth. Meanwhile, government announced that the third phase of coal block auctions received 32 technical bids for 10 mines meant for the unregulated sector in the third tranche of such e-auctions. Some buying was also being witnessed in the beaten down banking stocks, while the broader markets are outperforming the benchmarks. There were lots of scrip specific movement in the markets, Just Dial was trading higher after the company reported a rise of 18% in its net profit at Rs 33.17 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2015, on the other hand Ambuja Cements was trading in red after reporting a fall of 44.62% in its net profit at Rs 226.35 crore in Q1.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27554.06, down by 7.32 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 27505.75 and 27676.65. There were 16 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices trading in green were outperforming the benchmarks; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.16%, while Small cap index gained 0.32%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.49%, Bankex up by 0.44%, IT up by 0.41%, Capital Goods up by 0.40%, Power up by 0.37%, while Realty down by 2.26%, Metal down by 0.57%, Auto down by 0.49%, INFRA down by 0.27%, Oil & Gas down by 0.20% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 1.34%, HDFC Bank up by 1.15%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.69%, TCS up by 0.66% and NTPC up by 0.60%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.28%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.19%, HDFC down by 1.07%, ICICI Bank down by 1.03% and Tata Steel down by 0.86% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) of the country, Arvind Subramanian has said that India can grow at the rate of 8-10% if it has strong performing exports. CEA said that the International Economic environment of exports is not in the favor of India, as Europe, China and Japan are slowing down and said “I don't think there is one historical experience in the last 50-60 years where countries have rapid rate of growth without having strongly performing exports”. While talking about loose monetary policy which is followed by some countries he said that it will surely impact the growth performance of India. 

CEA expressed his concern that India might lose the biggest export market of the world and is going to be a victim of trade diversion, as negotiations of big countries for preferential trade agreements is increasing, where US is close to competing agreement with a number of Asian countries and the European Union. Also, China which is going to be a part of trans-Atlantic trade agreement is a real risk for India to get excluded from the biggest market of the world. Non tariff barriers can also be disadvantageous for India and these are a huge challenge for the external trade environment which should be taken care of.

Further CEA said that India should have a competitive exchange rate where we have to upgrade local infrastructure which will boost exports growth and also added that the government's Make in India initiative will help to strengthen the economy.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8362.40, up by 1.40 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 8344.85 and 8397.40. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were PNB up by 4.29%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.66%, Zee Entertainment up by 1.46%, BHEL up by 1.40% and HDFC Bank up by 1.07%. On the flip side, NMDC down by 4.25%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.27%, Tata Motors down by 2.24%, Cairn India down by 1.24% and HDFC down by 1.13% were the top losers.

Asian markets were showing a mixed trend, KOSPI Index was marginally up by 0.01% to 2,039.10, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 1.73 points or 0.1% to 1,711.49, Taiwan Weighted added 25.81 points or 0.3% to 8,582.49 and Hang Seng surged by 280.25 points or 1.15% to 24,632.21.

On the other hand, Jakarta Composite declined by 38.94 points or 0.82% to 4,732.34, Shanghai Composite decreased 31.36 points or 0.84% to 3,694.20, Straits Times lost 23.41 points or 0.71% to 3,290.01 and Nikkei 225 was down by 21.21 points or 0.1% to 20,328.89.