Benchmarks continue to trade in red in early noon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in red in early noon session on sustained selling by market participants amid weak global cues. Further, manufacturing PMI, which fell to a 25-month low of 50.3 in November, too dampened the sentiment. Meanwhile, the growth of India’s services sector stagnated in November as new work orders saw slowest rise in over three months and confidence waned. Falling from October’s eight-month high of 53.2 to 50.1 in November, the seasonally adjusted Nikkei Business Activity Index pointed to broadly unchanged levels of services activity across the country. Besides, depreciation in Indian rupee against dollar too weighed down the sentiments. The rupee fell by 14 paise to 66.73 against the dollar due to fresh demand for the American currency from importers.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after the U.S. Federal Reserve chief indicated the central bank is on track for an interest rate hike this month and a slide in oil prices hit energy companies. Back home, At present sensex and Nifty were trading below their crucial 26,000 and 7,900 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive, out of 2463 stocks traded, 1236 stocks advanced, while 1087 stocks declined on the BSE.

In scrip specific development, share of Aditya Birla Nuvo was trading higher after the company has entered into an agreement with the Canadian insurance major Sun Life to sell around 437 million equity shares constituting 23% of the issued and paid up equity share capital of Birla Sun Life Insurance (BSLI). Wipro was trading higher after the company has signed an agreement with Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg (LBBW) to acquire Cellent AG for 73.5 million Euros. Cellent AG is a leading IT consulting and software services company and has been offering holistic innovative IT solutions and services to its customers in the DACH region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland for the past 14 years.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25963.12, down by 154.73 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 25955.02 and 26123.86. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.14%, while Small cap index down by 0.13%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.61%, Capital Goods up by 0.10%, Power up by 0.07% and Oil & Gas up by 0.01%, while FMCG down by 1.21%, Consumer Durables down by 0.80%, Auto down by 0.53%, Metal down by 0.52% and TECK down by 0.46% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 0.79%, Reliance Industries up by 0.50%, Larsen & Toubro up by 0.43%, GAIL India up by 0.39% and Axis Bank up by 0.37%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.20%, Cipla down by 1.88%, BHEL down by 1.88%, ITC down by 1.79% and Hindustan Unilever down by 1.65% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, cheering the air travelers and increasing some burden of the airline companies, the Lok Sabha has passed a Bill aimed at enhancing compensation that airlines must pay to passengers in case of death, injury, lost baggage or inordinate flight delay.  The Carriage by Air (Amendment) Bill, 2015, passed in Lok Sabha intends to increase the compensation for death in an accident to more than Rs 1 crore from around Rs 89 lakh at present. The Bill will enable the government to revise the liability limits of carriers in line with the Montreal Convention, which India had signed in May 2009.

Once the Bill is enacted into a law, domestic carriers will have to pay compensation equivalent to the rates paid by their global counter-parts. The Bill intends to raise the liability limit for damage in case of death or bodily injury for each person from 1,00,000 SDR (special drawing rights) to 1,13,100 SDR. As per the latest exchange rate, the compensation limit rises to more than Rs 1 crore from almost Rs 88.71 lakh at present. One SDR is equivalent to more than Rs 90. The currency value of the SDR is based on market exchange rates of a basket of major currencies-dollar, euro, Japanese yen and pound.

According to the Bill, the liability for delay in carriage for each person is proposed to be raised from 4,150 SDR to 4,694 SDR while the liability in case of destruction, loss, damage or delay of baggage is proposed to be raised from 1,000 SDR to 1,131 SDR. Liability in case of destruction, loss or delay in relation to the carriage of cargo has been raised from 17 SDR to 19 SDR.

The liability limits are revised once every five years by the International Civil Aviation Organisation on the basis of a determined inflation factor of 13.1 per cent triggering an adjustment in the limits.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7885.30, down by 46.05 points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 7878.35 and 7912.30. There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 1.32%, Yes Bank up by 0.78%, Grasim Industries up by 0.73%, NTPC up by 0.71% and Tech Mahindra up by 0.53%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.36%, Cipla down by 2.13%, BHEL down by 2.08%, ITC down by 1.62% and Hindustan Unilever down by 1.61% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 59.68 points or 0.27% to 22,420.01, KOSPI Index decreased 15.36 points or 0.76% to 1,993.93, Jakarta Composite decreased 4.79 points or 0.11% to 4,541.07 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 2.63 points or 0.16% to 1,674.14, while Shanghai Composite increased 8.75 points or 0.25% to 3,545.66, Taiwan Weighted increased 13.31 points or 0.16% to 8,470.71 and Nikkei 225 increased 28.02 points or 0.14% to 19,966.15.