Benchmarks turn red; Nifty declines below 8,250 mark

Paring all their early gains, Indian Equity benchmarks have entered into red terrain as investors booked profit at higher levels. Both Sensex and Nifty breached their crucial 28,300 and 8,250 levels as sentiments took U-turn after China markets slumped over 4 per cent, hurting the sentiment in domestic markets. Depreciation in Indian rupee too weighed down sentiments. The rupee depreciated by 12 paise to 65.18 against the dollar in noon deals on increased demand for the US currency from importers. Meanwhile, HDFC Bank has reported a rise of 20.49% in its net profit at Rs 2869.45 crore as compared to Rs 2381.46 crore in Q2FY15, in-line with street expectation.

On the global front, European counters have made a cautious start with CAC and DAX trading marginally higher, but FTSE was trading slightly in red. Asian markets were trading mostly in the green at this point of time, with Seoul hitting multi-month highs. Back home, on the sectoral front, metal, technology and software witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while realty, banking and capital goods remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were reeling under pressure, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 1154 shares on the gaining side against 1256 shares on the losing side while 151 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27212.44, down by 94.39 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 27207.24 and 27445.24. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.29%, while Small cap index down by 0.48%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.56%, TECK up by 0.42% and IT up by 0.39%, while Realty down by 1.66%, Bankex down by 0.98%, Capital Goods down by 0.76%, Healthcare down by 0.73% and Power down by 0.43% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 1.47%, Tata Steel up by 1.33%, Vedanta up by 1.23%, Infosys up by 1.06% and NTPC up by 0.98%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 3.09%, ICICI Bank down by 1.89%, SBI down by 1.38%, Sun Pharma down by 1.04% and Larsen & Toubro down by 1.04% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to achieve the target of $30 billion in bilateral trade in the next 10 years, India and Russia have discussed the ways to boost their economic ties. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, chairing the 21st India-Russia Inter-Governmental Consultations, also looked at ways to enhance the mutual direct investment to $15 billion by 2025.

Both the countries identified various sectors in order to achieve their commercial targets. Agriculture, pharmaceutical and infrastructure were some of the areas identified by both countries to strengthen their economic engagement. The other areas deliberated upon were space, energy, culture and science and technology. 

Furthermore, India reiterated its commitment to work towards having 12 Russian nuclear plants as was agreed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and and Russian President Vladimir Putin as Russia is an important partner for India in peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Last year, the bilateral trade between the two countries amounted to $9.51 billion, with Indian export touching $3.17 billion and imports from Russia $6.34 billion.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8230.55, down by 31.10 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 8228.10 and 8294.40. There were 21 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 1.51%, Vedanta up by 1.38%, Tata Steel up by 1.27%, Infosys up by 1.03% and NTPC up by 0.90%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 3.42%, Asian Paints down by 2.83%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.66%, PNB down by 1.56% and Tata Power down by 1.27% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 2.75 points or 0.16% to 1,707.78, KOSPI Index gained 3.62 points or 0.18% to 2,042.98, Jakarta Composite surged 49.59 points or 1.08% to 4,635.42 and Nikkei 225 was up by 347.13 points or 1.91% to 18,554.28. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite tumbled 137.52 points or 4.01% to 3,287.81 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 44.37 points or 0.51% to 8,609.23.

European Markets were trading mostly in the green; Germany’s DAX gained 0.21% and France’s CAC added 0.10%, while UK’s FTSE was down by 0.04%.