Benchmarks continue weak trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued their weak trade in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters. The sentiments were under pressure after rupee depreciated against the US dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange in noon deals due to fresh dollar demand from importers. Investors took note of RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan views who stated that it will be a long time before India can replace China as a growth engine for the global economy, even if it grows at a faster rate. The comments assume significance in the wake of a China-led slowdown hurting the markets worldwide in the recent days, which has led to calls in India for taking this crisis situation as an opportunity as the global economy may need alternative growth engines. Traders were seen piling position in Power, Infra and Oil & Gas stocks while selling was witnessed in Bankex, Capital Goods and FMCG sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Edelweiss Financial Services was trading firm after its subsidiary Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance got necessary approval from FIPB to increase its FDI cap. The market may remain volatile in the near future as traders may roll over positions in the Futures & Options (F&O) segment from the near month i.e. August 2015 series to next month i.e. September 2015 series. The near month August 2015 derivatives contracts will expire on Thursday i.e. August 27, 2015.

On the global front, the Asian markets traded mostly in green while the European markets were trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below the psychological 7,900 and 26,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1326:1163 while 99 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25952.67, down by 79.71 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 25687.69 and 26156.61. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.24%, while Small cap index up by 0.74%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 1.56%, INFRA up by 1.16%, Oil & Gas up by 0.75%, PSU up by 0.54% and IT up by 0.53%, while Bankex down by 1.07%, Capital Goods down by 0.73% and FMCG down by 0.40% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.96%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.65%, TCS up by 2.11%, Wipro up by 2.05% and Coal India up by 2.01%.

On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 3.20%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.82%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.55%, SBI down by 2.09% and HDFC down by 1.80% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce & Industry Ministry additional secretary J K Dadoo has said that due to fall in fuel prices overseas, the exports of petroleum products have been dipped. Low prices of crude, metal and commodity, dip in manufacturing and slowdown in western markets are some of the factors attributing to the fall. Also there has been increase in demand for petroleum-based products in the domestic markets because of the deregulation of diesel prices. Dadoo further said that trading with the European Union has been impacted due to economic woes of the 27-nation bloc.

Reliance, which accounts for over quarter of the country’s exports reported over 40% plunge in exports in Q1 of the current fiscal. Essar Oil too reported decline in petroleum products exports during the same quarter as oil prices across the globe were falling, due to fall in demand in the world's largest oil consumer China and increased shale gas production in the US, which is the second largest oil market globally.

Hit by global slowdown and dip in crude oil prices that impacted the value of petroleum products, exports were down 10.3% in July 2015 to $23.13 billion compared to that of $25.79 billion in same month last fiscal. The last time when the exports had registered a positive growth was in November 2014, where shipments expanded 7.27%.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7865.85, down by 14.85 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 7785.60 and 7930.05. There were 23 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cairn India up by 4.41%, Tata Power up by 3.85%, Tata Motors up by 3.04%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.87% and Zee Entertainment up by 2.49%.

On the flip side, Ambuja Cement down by 4.02%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.80%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.62%, IndusInd Bank down by 2.32% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.31% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Jakarta Composite increased 0.41 points or 0.01% to 4,228.91, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 17.36 points or 1.11% to 1,581.30, Taiwan Weighted increased 39.95 points or 0.52% to 7,715.59, KOSPI Index increased 47.46 points or 2.57% to 1,894.09 and Nikkei 225 increased 570.13 points or 3.2% to 18,376.83.

On the other hand, Hang Seng decreased 324.57 points or 1.52% to 21,080.39, Shanghai Composite decreased 37.68 points or 1.27% to 2,927.29 and Straits Times decreased 1.87 points or 0.06% to 2,884.42.

The European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 107.45 points or 1.06% to 10,020.67, France’s CAC decreased 56.77 points or 1.24% to 4,508.09 and UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 78.39 points or 1.29% to 6,002.95.