Benchmarks continue to trade lower in noon deals

Markets continue to show a sluggish trend in the noon deals, with not much respite in sight, though the selling has got arrested and the benchmarks have recovered a bit from the day’s low, but the major benchmarks continue to trade lower as crumbling oil prices and data pointing to cooling demand from China sapped investors’ appetite for risk assets. Traders seem to have overlooked the government’s statement that the fall in foreign portfolio investments may not have any major macroeconomic impact as long as capital flows are adequate to finance current account deficit. Lingering concerns over GST too weighed down sentiments.

On the global front, most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red terrain at this point of time. However, Chinese market was trading in green terrain after the China’s central bank cut its reference rate to the lowest level since 2011. Back home, on the sectoral front, power, software and fast moving consumer goods witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while metal, realty and healthcare remained the 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 538 shares on the gaining side against 1,959 shares on the losing side while 130 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25216.88, down by 93.45 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 25165.16 and 25316.95. 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 0.96%, while Small cap index down by 1.56%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 0.21%, IT up by 0.12% and FMCG up by 0.06% while, Metal down by 1.40%, Realty down by 1.06%, Healthcare down by 1.17%, Auto down by 0.85%, Oil & Gas down by 0.83%, were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 2.82%, NTPC up by 1.42%, TCS up by 1.33%, ITC up by 0.90% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.85%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 2.99%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.27%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.18%, Sun Pharma down by 2.14% and Lupin down by 1.89% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha has said that the decline in the level of foreign portfolio investments (FPIs) flows may not have a significant macroeconomic impact as long as capital inflows remain enough to finance the current account deficit (CAD).

Sinha further said that the FPI through its impact on the cost of capital helps supplement domestic resources and thereby growth momentum. It also helps finance the level of current CAD and has implications for the exchange rate. However, a larger than required flow in either direction tends to impact exchange rate and hence to be modulated by the RBI through intervention.

During the first eight months of the current fiscal, foreign portfolio investments had pulled out a sum of Rs 7,008 crore from the country's capital markets after investing staggering funds in the preceding two financial years. In the year 2014-15, FPIs had made a net investment of Rs 2.77 lakh crore and Rs 51,649 crore in 2013-14.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7669.05, down by 32.65 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 7653.20 and 7702.85. There were 11 stocks advancing against 39 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BHEL up by 2.88%, TCS up by 1.33%, ITC up by 1.08%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.99% and Wipro up by 0.98%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 2.98%, Idea Cellular down by 2.33%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.31%, Sun Pharma down by 2.17% and Ambuja Cement down by 2.05% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 191.53 points or 0.98% to 19,301.07, Taiwan Weighted declined 114.24 points or 1.37% to 8,229.62, Jakarta Composite dropped 57.21 points or 1.27% to 4,464.18, Hang Seng slipped 55.38 points or 0.25% to 21,849.75, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI shed 4.21 points or 0.25% to 1,665.03 and KOSPI Index was down by 0.8 points or 0.04% to 1,948.24. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was up by 5.15 points or 0.15% to 3,475.22.