Markets continue to trade weak; Nifty below 8150

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade weak in early noon session, on concerns that a likely Fed rate hike in December would see outflows from emerging markets, besides caution prevailed on the bourses with the October series expiry in the derivatives segment today. However, investor got some support with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement after India jumped 12 positions to rank 130th in the world on ease of doing business, that the improvement in ranking does not fully reflect the reforms initiated and the position will improve further next year. At present, Sensex and Nifty were trading below crucial 26,950 and 8,150 levels, respectively. Traders were seen piling up position in Consumer Durables, Auto and Realty stocks, while selling was witnessed in FMCG, PSU, Bankex, Teck and Power sector stocks.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after Federal Reserve policymakers left the U.S. benchmark rate at a record low but indicated they might raise it at their December meeting if the U.S. economy keeps improving. Back home, in scrip specific development, share of Just Dial was trading down by 8% after the company posted 6.7% year on year (YoY) decline in operating profit at Rs 39.72 crore for the quarter ended September 2015 against Rs 42.60 crore in the year ago quarter. Raymond declined by around 3% after the diversified group reported a massive fall of 86.14 per cent in its consolidated net profit at Rs 9.44 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2015 on account of under-performance of its engineering business..
 
The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2386 stocks traded, 1207 stocks advanced, while 1027 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26946.23, down by 93.53 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 26936.16 and 27099.11. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.12%, while Small cap index gained 0.26%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.12%, Auto up by 0.46% and Realty up by 0.39%, while FMCG down by 0.86%, PSU down by 0.79%, Bankex down by 0.70%, TECK down by 0.64% and Power down by 0.58% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 2.27%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.61%, HDFC up by 1.23%, Vedanta up by 1.14% and Cipla up by 1.06%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 4.05%, Axis Bank down by 2.74%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.01%, ITC down by 1.62% and GAIL India down by 1.61% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, government has approved 16 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals amounting Rs 4,722 crore including those of HDFC Capital and Ageon Religare Life Insurance on the recommendation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) which is headed by Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das. Ageon Religare Life Insurance's proposal worth Rs 559.96 crore was cleared by FIPB. The approval was sought for the transfer of shares to Aegon India Holding thereby raising the foreign shareholding from 26 percent to 49 percent.

The Board cleared proposal of HDFC Capital which alone entails investments of Rs 2,400 crore. The company sought approval for issue of units to Green Light. The Finance Ministry has said that HDFC Fund proposes to make investments in equity, equity linked instruments, redeemable preference shares, non-convertible debentures and other debt securities of listed or unlisted investee companies engaged in real estate construction development projects which are permitted under the SEBI AIF Regulations as a Cateqory II AIF.

Besides, Sun Pharma Research Advanced company’s proposal worth Rs 250 crore, Synergia Life Sciences worth Rs 40 crore and the post facto approval for Aditya Birla Nuvo's Rs 377 crore plan were cleared during a meeting held on September 29. However, 8 proposals were rejected including that of Cipla Health and Apollo Hospitals Enterprise.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8141.85, down by 29.35 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 8134.25 and 8179.60. There were 21 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.20%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.54%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.42%, HDFC up by 1.14% and Vedanta up by 1.14%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 4.00%, Axis Bank down by 2.82%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.19%, BPCL down by 2.04% and ITC down by 1.82% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted decreased 94.91 points or 1.1% to 8,571.08, Jakarta Composite decreased 89.76 points or 1.95% to 4,518.98, Hang Seng decreased 56.47 points or 0.25% to 22,900.10, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 11.87 points or 0.7% to 1,674.64 and KOSPI Index decreased 5.68 points or 0.28% to 2,036.83, while Shanghai Composite increased 11.91 points or 0.35% to 3,387.10 and Nikkei 225 increased 47.84 points or 0.25% to 18,950.86.