Markets continue to trade sluggish in early noon session

Indian equity markets continued to show a sluggish trend in the early noon session, on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters. Sentiments remained under pressure with report that India’s exports contracted for the 10th straight month by 24.33% in September to $21.84 billion due to steep fall in shipments of petroleum productions, iron ore, and engineering goods amid tepid global demand. Depreciation in the rupee too dampened the sentiment. The rupee weakened by 12 paise to 64.94 against the dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange in early trade on Friday on demand of the US currency among importers amid shrinking exports in September. Traders were seen piling up position in Capital Goods, Oil & Gas, Auto and Power stocks, while selling was witnessed in Realty, Metal, FMCG, Bankex, and PSU sector stocks. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, tracking the positive lead overnight from Wall Street amid optimism that the US Federal Reserve will delay raising interest rates. Back home, in scrip specific development, share of Radico Khaitan was trading up by over 5% after the company said Reliance Mutual Fund bought an additional stake in the company through open market. Tata Motors was trading higher after the company reported 21 per cent year-on-year rise in group global sales figures for the month ended September, 2015.

The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2441 stocks traded, 1113 stocks advanced, while 1196 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26955.21, down by 54.93 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 26921.25 and 27064.21. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.05%, while Small cap index added 0.04%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 0.60%, Oil & Gas up by 0.53%, Auto up by 0.47% and Power up by 0.08%, while Realty down by 1.31%, Metal down by 0.96%, FMCG down by 0.63%, Bankex down by 0.35% and PSU down by 0.20% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 1.32%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.19%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.12%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.07% and Tata Motors up by 0.79%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 2.25%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.12%, Tata Steel down by 1.96%, ITC down by 1.23% and Hindalco down by 1.14% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, contracting for the tenth month in a row, India's exports plunged over 24 percent in September mainly due to global slowdown and declining commodity prices worldwide. The last time Indian exports registered a positive growth was in November 2014, when shipments had expanded at a rate of 7.27 percent. However, Imports too declined by over 25 percent in September this year, thus narrowing the trade gap to $10478.70 million from $ 14474.04 million recorded in the same month of 2014. The trade deficit during April-September 2015-16 too has narrowed to $ 67994.79 million as against $ 72692.08 million in the same period last fiscal.

As per the data released by the Commerce Ministry, Exports during September, 2015 were valued at $ 21844.98 million in Dollar terms, 24.33 per cent lower than the level of $28867.71 million during September, 2014. In Rupee terms the exports stood at Rs. 144652.67 crore for the month against Rs.175703.03 crore in the same month last year, showing a decline of 17.67 per cent. Cumulative value of exports for the period April-September 2015-16 was $132939.45 million as against $ 161397.35 million over the same period last year, registering a negative growth of 17.63 per cent in Dollar terms and Rs. 853586.59 crore against Rs. 971716.43 crore in the 12.16 per cent in Rupee terms, over the period April-September 2014-15.

Imports during September, 2015 were valued at $32323.68 million in Dollar terms, 25.42 per cent lower over the level of imports valued at $ 43341.75 million in the same month last year. In rupee terms inports were valued at Rs. 214040.28 crore which was lower by 18.86 per cent from Rs. 263799.12 crore worth of imports  in September, 2014. Cumulative value of imports for the period April-September 2015-16  was $ 200934.24 million as against $ 234089.43 million, registering a negative growth of 14.16 per cent in Dollar terms and stood at Rs 1290218.42 crore in Rupee term down by 8.46 per cent of Rs1409403.56 crore in the same period last year.

Oil imports during September, 2015 were valued at $ 6626.59 million 54.53 per cent lower than oil imports valued at $ 14573.17 million in the corresponding period last year. Cumulative oil imports during April-September, 2015-16 were valued at $ 48128.96 million which was 41.58 per cent lower than the oil imports of  $ 82378.98 million in the corresponding period last year. Non-oil imports during September, 2015 were estimated at $ 25697.09 million which was 10.68 per cent lower than non-oil imports of $ 28768.58 million in September, 2014. Non-oil imports during April-September, 2015-16 were valued at $ 152805.28 million, 0.72 per cent higher than the level of such imports valued at $ 151710.45 million in April-September, 2014-15.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8160.20, down by 19.30 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 8155.15 and 8196.20. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 1.93%, NTPC up by 1.36%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.33%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.12% and Maruti Suzuki up by 0.93%. On the flip side, Adani Ports &Special down by 2.57%, Idea Cellular down by 2.40%, Bank of Baroda down by 2.20%, Lupin down by 2.18% and Bharti Airtel down by 2.01% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 2 points or 0.12% to 1,715.25, Shanghai Composite increased 23.43 points or 0.7% to 3,361.51, Hang Seng increased 113.06 points or 0.49% to 23,001.23 and Nikkei 225 increased 178.33 points or 0.99% to 18,275.23, while Taiwan Weighted decreased 12.66 points or 0.15% to 8,588.86, Jakarta Composite decreased 4.99 points or 0.11% to 4,502.21 and KOSPI Index decreased 4.72 points or 0.23% to 2,028.55.