Benchmarks make gap-down opening on Monday

Indian equity markets have made a gap-down opening and are now trading with the loss of more than half a percent in early deals on Monday, as investors opted to book some profit after previous session’s rally, tailing weak performance among global peers. The sentiments were further weighed down by Indian rupee depreciating 19 paise to 65.86 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday. The markets are likely to remain volatile ahead of the near-month September derivatives contracts expiry on September 24, 2015, as traders roll-over positions to the October 2015 series. Most of the sectoral indices barring Healthcare on BSE were trading in red led by Metal, Bankex and Realty.

In scrip specific development, shares of National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) were trading higher after the company secured Rs 197-crore project to build a trade facilitation centre and crafts museum at Varanasi.

On the global front, US markets ended lower on Friday as the Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates near zero fuelled concerns about the potential impact of continuing weak global growth on US corporate earnings. The Asian markets were trading mostly in red tracking an uninspiring lead from Wall Street.

Closer home, at present, both Sensex and Nifty were trading below the crucial 26,000 and 7,950 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 741:775 while 66 scrips remained unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25999.23, down by 219.68 points or 0.84% after trading in a range of 25972.54 and 26107.98. There were 3 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.30%, while Small cap index up by 0.06%.

The lone gaining sectoral indices on the BSE was Healthcare up by 0.13%, while Metal down by 1.39%, Bankex down by 1.08%, Realty down by 0.67%, FMCG down by 0.66% and PSU down by 0.61%.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 0.64%, ONGC up by 0.17% and Maruti Suzuki up by 0.14%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 2.30%, Tata Steel down by 2.14%, HDFC down by 1.97%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.80% and SBI down by 1.42% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has asserted foreign investors that India would give better returns on investments than many other countries. Noting that the government is putting special focus on improving ease of doing business he said that foreign investments can provide great additional resources for infrastructure and other sectors.

Jaitley said that the country’s infrastructure sector needs huge investments. Railways, highways and power sectors are among those that require funds and the success of projects in these areas would largely depend on bankability. He said that the government is giving special focus on improving the ease of doing business in the country with initiatives like 'Make In India' designed to boost the manufacturing sector that has huge potential.

FM who is on Singapore and Hong Kong visit seeking to attract foreign investors, including large asset managers, to the Indian markets, emphasised that the government wants to resolve expeditiously the entire instability on the taxation matters as “tax uncertainty does not help the investment environment”. He added that “We inherited a legacy of several tax disputes. Perhaps, this was one of the tougher challenges we had.”  He also said that we are very eager to reach a resolution.

Looking to attract more overseas investors, he said Digital India and Make in India (initiatives) are designed to give special boost to manufacturing and India has huge potential in these areas. On concerns that the reforms pace has turned slow, Jaitley said, “I don’t share that perception because the government has been moving very consistently on its reforms agenda with a clear-cut direction.”

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7921.25, down by 60.65 points or 0.76% after trading in a range of 7908.35 and 7931.60. There were 6 stocks advancing against 44 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech. up by 0.94%, BPCL up by 0.51%, Tata Motors up by 0.44%, Power Grid Corpn. up by 0.22% and Maruti Suzuki up by 0.12%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 2.11%, Tata Steel down by 2.02%, Ambuja Cement down by 1.93%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.86% and HDFC down by 1.72% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 281.55 points or 1.28% to 21,639.28, Taiwan Weighted decreased 169.01 points or 2% to 8,293.13, KOSPI Index decreased 29.64 points or 1.49% to 1,966.31, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 21.3 points or 1.28% to 1,648.15, Straits Times decreased 13.5 points or 0.47% to 2,866.09 and Jakarta Composite decreased 8.85 points or 0.2% to 4,371.47.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite increased 20.97 points or 0.68% to 3,118.89.