Benchmarks extend losses; Sensex breaches 25,700 mark

Extending their losses, Indian equity benchmarks have breached their crucial 25,700 (Sensex) and 7,800 (Nifty) levels to trade with a cut of around a percent in noon deals. Sentiments remained downbeat with Janet Yellen’s hawkish stance on the US economy thus reinforcing the case for an interest rate hike in December 2015. Investors failed to draw any sense of relief with Standard & Poor's Ratings Services projecting India's economy growing at 7.4 percent in the current fiscal, which will further improve to over 8 percent in 2016-17. Also, the slump in the rupee in today’s trades has weighed on the local markets.

On the global front, all the Asian equity indices were trading in red terrain at this point of time on account of stimulus announced by the European Central Bank (ECB) that failed to meet expectation. Back home, selling was both brutal and wide-based as none of sectoral indices, barring metal, on BSE were spared. Counters, which featured in the list of worst performers, include software, technology and banking. The broader indices too were reeling under pressure, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 1,372 shares on the gaining side against 1,065 shares on the losing side while 144 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25666.20, down by 220.42 points or 0.85% after trading in a range of 25644.35 and 25810.06. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.65%, while Small cap index down by 0.22%.

The lone gaining sectoral index on the BSE was Metal up by 0.40%, while IT down by 1.07%, TECK down by 1.06%, Bankex down by 1.05%, FMCG down by 0.86%, Realty down by 0.85% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 3.78%, Tata Steel up by 0.77%, Tata Motors up by 0.54%, Coal India up by 0.36% and BHEL up by 0.33%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.05%, HDFC down by 1.99%, ICICI Bank down by 1.80%, NTPC down by 1.49% and ITC down by 1.49% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government may ban trucks and buses more than 15 years old to curb record pollution levels. Road transport and highways secretary Vijay Chhibber has reportedly said that the ban will come into effect in April and will be announced in more detail in the next two weeks. He said that “We are going to make 15 years the end of life for all commercial vehicles.”

Chhibber said that air pollution will get worse every year unless we do something. As per the World Health Organization (WHO) report, last year India has 13 of the world's 20 most polluted cities and air pollution causes more than 600,000 premature deaths in India each year.

In addition to addressing the issue of pollution, the decision would create incremental demand for new trucks. The domestic market for large commercial vehicles is quite big and a higher volume will mean higher tax revenue for the government, too.

The country is estimated to have 2.7 million registered trucks in the year 2000. A total of 195,918 medium and heavy goods commercial vehicles were sold in the year ended March 31, 2015. The government can impose the ban by amending the Motor Vehicles Act and the Central Motor Vehicles Rules.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7790.65, down by 73.50 points or 0.93% after trading in a range of 7784.80 and 7819.25. There were 7 stocks advancing against 42 stocks declining on the index while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma Inds. up by 3.86%, Cairn India up by 3.26% , Tata Steel up by 0.75%, Tata Motors up by 0.48% and BHEL up by 0.39%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 3.64%, Bank Of Baroda down by 2.80%, PNB down by 1.91%, Idea Cellular down by 1.89% and HDFC down by 1.85% were the top losers.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Nikkei 225 declined 435.42 points or 2.18% to 19,504.48, Hang Seng decreased 219.85 points or 0.98% to 22,197.16, Shanghai Composite dropped 60.93 points or 1.7% to 3,523.89, Taiwan Weighted dipped 57.46 points or 0.68% to 8,398.60, Jakarta Composite fell 29.67 points or 0.65% to 4,507.71, KOSPI Index shed 19.67 points or 0.99% to 1,974.40 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 4.64 points or 0.28% to 1,669.28.