Bloodbath continues on Dalal Street in noon deals on global economic fears

Pressurized by feeble global cues, Indian equity benchmarks continue to witness bloodbath in the noon deals as investors remain anxious on the economic slowdown in China amid fears of an interest rate hike by the Fed. A survey showed Chinese factories contracted at their fastest pace since the depth of the global financial crisis in 2009. European counters too made a awful start with CAC, DAX and FTSE all trading with a cut of over a percent in early deals.

Back home, depreciation in Indian rupee continue to weighed down sentiments. The rupee is trading at its weakest since September 2013 at 65.83 down by 30 paise since China devalued its yuan on August 11 along with weakness in the local equities. 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 realty, auto, capital goods and banking. The broader indices too were reeling under pressure, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 586 shares on the gaining side against 1900 shares on the losing side while 79 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27193.43, down by 414.39 points or 1.50% after trading in a range of 27131.44 and 27442.82. There were 2 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.43%, while Small cap index down by 1.48%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 3.13%, Auto down by 2.62%, Capital Goods down by 2.22%, Bankex down by 2.16% and INFRA down by 1.56%, while there were no gainers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 0.56% and Infosys up by 0.38%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 4.37%, Bajaj Auto down by 4.00%, Tata Motors down by 3.52%, Tata Steel down by 3.39% and Hero MotoCorp down by 3.34% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has simplified norms for its social security scheme Atal Pension Yojana (APY), so as to enlarge the reach among informal sector workers. Following the simplification of norms, subscribers now have an option to make the contribution on a monthly, quarterly or half yearly basis instead of on a monthly basis earlier. 

Furthermore, the penalty on delayed payment has been reduced to Re 1 per month for contribution of Rs 100 for each delayed monthly payment instead of different slabs given earlier. Also, premature exit from the scheme before sixty years of age was not permitted earlier except in exceptional circumstances, which is in the event of the death of the beneficiary or terminal disease. Now the modified provision allows the subscriber to voluntarily exit with the condition that they will only be refunded the contributions made to APY, along with the net actual interest earned on contributions and the government co-contribution, and the interest earned on the Government co-contribution, shall not be returned to such subscribers.

According to modification, discontinuation of payment of contribution provision has been substantially modified in favour of the subscriber. The account will not be deactivated and closed till the account balance with self-contributions minus the government co-contributions becomes zero on account of deduction of account maintenance charges and fees.

On May 9, 2015, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the Atal Pension Yojana. Under the scheme, the subscriber, who must be in the age group of 18-40 years, will receive the fixed pension in the range Rs 1,000-Rs 5,000 per month after attaining the age of 60 years, depending on contribution which will vary at the age of joining.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8249.45, down by 123.30 points or 1.47% after trading in a range of 8225.05 and 8305.40. There were 7 stocks advancing against 43 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra up by 0.91%, Ambuja Cement up by 0.83%, Infosys up by 0.81%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.75% and Tata Power up by 0.59%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 4.46%, Yes Bank down by 4.23%, Bajaj Auto down by 3.82%, Ultratech Cement down by 3.42% and Tata Motors down by 3.40% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 tumbled 597.69 points or 2.98% to 19,435.83, Hang Seng decreased 442.42 points or 1.94% to 22,315.05, Taiwan Weighted declined 242.89 points or 3.02% to 7,786.92, Shanghai Composite crumbled 125.17 points or 3.42% to 3,539.13, Jakarta Composite dropped 91.16 points or 2.05% to 4,350.75, Straits Times shed 47.05 points or 1.56% to 2,962.73 and KOSPI Index was down by 38.48 points or 2.01% to 1,876.07. 

On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 1.95 points or 0.12% to 1,579.36.

European Markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX lost 1.67%, France’s CAC declined 1.34% and UK’s FTSE was down by 1.00%.