Markets slip to lowest point of the day; Nifty below 7900

Selling has aggravated on the street in the early noon trade with benchmarks losing over a percent and trading at the lowest point of the day. The concerns of weak economic growth continues to weigh on the sentiments amid the sluggish global cues, as all the regional peers were still reeling deep in red with the Japanese Nikkei suffering cut of close to 4 percent. On the domestic front the traders were concerned with the India Meteorological Department's report that monsoon has been deficient by 11 percent so far with August recording 22 percent less than normal rainfall, raising the prospect of lower foodgrains production for the Kharif season than 2014 if the situation does not improve in September. June witnessed excess precipitation of 16 percent, while there was a monsoon deficit of 16 percent in July. Traders have even overlooked some recovery in the rupee against the US dollar on increased selling of the American currency by exporters, and also finance minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will take note of the fact that inflation is broadly under control, oil and commodity prices are low. Back on street, slower GDP growth data has majorly affected shares of banking and capital goods sectors. HDFC Bank was down by over 2% after the second largest private bank, cut its base rate by 35 basis points to 9.35%, from the existing 9.70 percent, which will put pressure on the margin.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26004.78, down by 278.31 points or 1.06% after trading in a range of 25969.16 and 26141.07. There were just 5 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices too were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was lost 1.02%, while Small cap index was down by 0.70%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.90%, TECK up by 0.46%, while Bankex down by 2.20%, Capital Goods down by 1.56%, Consumer Durables down by 1.20%, Metal down by 1.07%, Realty down by 1.05% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 1.45%, TCS up by 1.41%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.13%, NTPC up by 0.41% and BHEL up by 0.22%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 2.76%, Axis Bank down by 2.70%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.48%, Lupin down by 2.12% and HDFC Bank down by 2.07% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, for the third time in a row, prices of Petrol and Diesel were cut by Rs 2 per litre and Rs 0.50 per litre respectively, on account of reduction in international crude prices in the month of August. The new rates announced by the oil marketing companies (OMCs) will be effective from September 1, 2015. As a result, price of Petrol in the national capital will be Rs 61.20 per litre as against Rs 63.20 including local levies, while diesel will be available at Rs 44.45 as compared to Rs 44.95 earlier.

Earlier, oil firms had cut petrol price by Rs 1.27 a litre and diesel by Rs 1.17 per litre with effect from August 15. Prior to that, rates of petrol were cut on August 1 by Rs 2.43 a litre and that of diesel by Rs 3.60. The OMCs have said that since the last price change, there has been a decrease in international prices of both petrol and diesel, while the rupee-dollar exchange rate depreciated during this period. The combined impact of both these factors warranted a downward revision in prices, the impact which is being passed on to the consumers with this price decrease.

PSU oil marketing companies Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) revise petrol and diesel prices on 1st and 16th of every month based on average imported cost and rupee-dollar exchange rates in the previous fortnight.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7884.50, down by 86.80 points or 1.09% after trading in a range of 7867.75 and 7929.10. There were 9 stocks advancing against 41 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Infosys up by 1.52%, TCS up by 1.43%, Cairn India up by 1.28% Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.16% and Tech Mahindra up by 1.16%. On the flip side, PNB down by 4.56%, Asian Paints down by 3.37%, Yes Bank down by 3.33%, Idea Cellular down by 2.98% and Axis Bank down by 2.90% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets were trading in red barring the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI, which was up by 9.99 points or 0.62% to 1,622.73.

Nikkei 225 slumped by 724.79 points or 3.84% to 18,165.69, Hang Seng declined by 189.34 points or 0.87% to 21,481.24, Taiwan Weighted lost 157.36 points or 1.92% to 8,017.56, Shanghai Composite was down by 72.33 points or 2.26% to 3,133.66, Jakarta Composite lost 59.5 points or 1.32% to 4,450.11, KOSPI Index declined by 27.26 points or 1.4% to 1,914.23 and Straits Times was down by 12.8 points or 0.44% to 2,908.64.