Choppiness continues on Dalal Street; Sensex remains below 27000

Indian equity benchmarks continue to trade choppy in noon deals with cut of around one third of a percent. Sentiments remained down-beat on report that India’s exports contracted for the 10th straight month by 24.33 per cent in September to $21.84 billion due to steep fall in shipments of petroleum productions, iron ore, and engineering goods. Investors are eying Reliance Industries’ Q2 numbers. The Petrochemical major is expected report a standalone net profit of Rs 6,000 crore for the quarter ended September 2015 against Rs 6,318 crore in June quarter. Meanwhile, telecom stocks remained under pressure after Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has directed telcos to credit Rs 1 to a user for every call drop, up to Rs 3 per day (three dropped calls). The user will have to be intimated of the credit within four hours. For postpaid mobile users, the details of the credit will have to be shown in the next bill. The new rules will be applicable from January 1, 2016.

On the global front, European counters have made a firm start with CAC, DAX and FTSE all trading in green with a gain of around half a percent in early deals. Asian markets were trading mostly in green at this point of time as a run of weaker-than-estimated economic reports from China, Europe and the US scuttled bets on the Federal Reserve raising interest rates this year. Back home, on the sectoral front, capital goods, oil and gas and auto witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while realty, metal and fast moving consumer durables remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices were trading mixed, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 1,100 shares on the gaining side against 1,290 shares on the losing side while 149 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26929.12, down by 81.02 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 26917.12 and 27064.21. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.06%, while Small cap index lost 0.14%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 0.71%, Oil & Gas up by 0.56% and Auto up by 0.26%, while Realty down by 1.76%, Metal down by 1.14%, FMCG down by 0.79%, Healthcare down by 0.47% and Bankex down by 0.43% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 1.40%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.38%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.80%, Reliance Industries up by 0.74% and Tata Motors up by 0.58%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 2.82%, Tata Steel down by 2.39%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.89%, Hindalco down by 1.65% and Coal India down by 1.33% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that India’s economic growth rate will be more than 7.5 percent in the fiscal year 2015-16. He stated that while India’s macroeconomic indicators are positive, inflation has come down, Indirect tax revenues are showing a positive trend, and CAD is under control, all these positive indicators point to India's economic revival and the government is following the fiscal consolidation road map and will stick to fiscal deficit target.

Besides, Jaitley said that there is scope of increasing GDP by 2 percent by taking cumulative measures including rationalisation of taxes etc, adding that subsidy rationalisation, implementation of DBT, bank recapitalisation, investment in infrastructure and irrigation sector are priority areas of the government. He further said that even when globally the economic situation is not that good, India's industrial and manufacturing output are showing improvement.

While talking about the agricultural sector, Jaitley has said that the agriculture sector needs to be more productive in order to raise its contribution in overall GDP. He further added that though 55 percent of India’s populations are engaged in agriculture sector, it contributes only 15 percent to GDP.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8156.40, down by 23.10 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 8147.65 and 8196.20. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 2.11%, NTPC up by 1.64%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.59%, Zee Entertainment up by 1.11% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.79%. On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 2.82%, Lupin down by 2.73%, Bank of Baroda down by 2.36%, Adani Ports & Special down by 2.33% and Tata Steel down by 2.27% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 1.91 points or 0.11% to 1,715.16, Taiwan Weighted gained 3.43 points or 0.04% to 8,604.95, Shanghai Composite surged 47 points or 1.41% to 3,385.07, Hang Seng increased 113.46 points or 0.5% to 23,001.63 and Nikkei 225 was up by 194.9 points or 1.08% to 18,291.80. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite decreased 4.99 points or 0.11% to 4,502.21 and KOSPI Index was down by 3.01 points or 0.15% to 2,030.26.

European Markets were trading in the green; Germany’s DAX gained 0.54%, France’s CAC added 0.37% and UK’s FTSE was up by 0.40%.