Benchmarks continue weak trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued their weak trade in red in the late afternoon session on account of selling in front line blue chip counters. The sentiments were under pressure after the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and S&P scaled down their expectations on India’s economic performance. ADB has revised its forecast downwards and projected India’s growth at 7.4% in 2015, while S&P has maintained it at 7.4% for the current fiscal year on concerns over the global slowdown, a weak monsoon, and stalled structural reforms. Traders were seen piling position in Metal and Capital Goods stocks while selling was witnessed in Bankex, Auto and FMCG sector stocks. In the scrip specific development, Zee Learn was trading firm while Tree House Education & Accessories was locked at upper circuit limit after the Tree House board approved exploring consolidation options with Zee Learn.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading in red, while the European markets were trading mostly on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below the psychological 7,850 and 25,800 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1231:1357 while 169 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25768.47, down by 118.15 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 25644.35 and 25810.06. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.59%, while Small cap index down by 0.10%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.60% and Capital Goods up by 0.09%, while Bankex down by 0.79%, Auto down by 0.71%, FMCG down by 0.68%, Consumer Durables down by 0.53% and Realty down by 0.51% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 4.31%, Tata Steel up by 1.04%, BHEL up by 0.71%, Coal India up by 0.69% and Infosys up by 0.57%.

On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.21%, HDFC down by 1.79%, ICICI Bank down by 1.48%, ITC down by 1.33% and NTPC down by 1.12% 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 7818.80, down by 45.35 points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 7784.80 and 7821.40. There were 13 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 4.45%, Cairn India up by 2.56%, Tata Steel up by 1.02%, Ultratech Cement up by 0.72% and BHEL up by 0.71%.

On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 3.22%, Bank of Baroda down by 1.96%, HDFC down by 1.89%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.81% and HCL Tech down by 1.76% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 435.42 points or 2.18% to 19,504.48, Hang Seng decreased 181.12 points or 0.81% to 22,235.89, Shanghai Composite decreased 59.83 points or 1.67% to 3,524.99, Taiwan Weighted decreased 57.46 points or 0.68% to 8,398.60, Jakarta Composite decreased 26.46 points or 0.58% to 4,510.92, KOSPI Index decreased 19.67 points or 0.99% to 1,974.40 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 4.11 points or 0.25% to 1,669.81.

The European markets were trading mostly in green; France’s CAC increased 3.59 points or 0.08% to 4,733.80, Germany’s DAX increased 4.42 points or 0.04% to 10,793.66 while, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 15.46 points or 0.25% to 6,259.54.