Choppiness continues on Dalal Street in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade choppy in noon deals with Sensex breaching its crucial 24,700 mark, while Nifty holding its crucial 7,500 mark. Sentiments remained down beat on report that United Nations has downgraded its GDP growth forecast for India for 2016 to 7.5 percent from 8.2 percent estimated earlier, largely due to slow progress in implementing reform policies. Depreciation in Indian rupee too weighed down sentiments. The rupee surrendered its initial gains and was trading down by 15 paise to 67.44 against the US dollar in noon deals on bouts of dollar demand from importers.

Global cues too remained sluggish with Asian markets trading mostly in red at this point of time as worries about slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy kept a lid on gains in Asia. Back home, Consumer durables and auto counters continued to trade southward despite the government decided to set up a high-powered panel headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha to process the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission. The broader indices too were reeling under pressure, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 867 shares on the gaining side against 1,471 shares on the losing side while 161 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24698.78, down by 74.19 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 24674.67 and 24912.64. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.51%, while Small cap index down by 0.63%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 1.05%, IT up by 0.67%, TECK up by 0.38% and Oil & Gas up by 0.26% while, Utilities down by 1.81%, Power down by 1.41%, Realty down by 0.98%, PSU down by 0.96% and Telecom down by 0.95%, were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 1.87%, Infosys up by 1.49%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.08%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 0.90% and HDFC Bank up by 0.31%. On the flip side, GAIL India down by 3.47%, NTPC down by 3.39%, BHEL down by 2.19%, ICICI Bank down by 1.72% and ONGC down by 1.69% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, based on the recommendations of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), the government in its meeting chaired by Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, has approved five Foreign Direct Investment proposals amounting Rs 6,050 crore, including Cadila Healthcare with investment of Rs. 5,000-crore for fresh equity infusion. Cadila will infuse equity of up to Rs. 5,000 crore through issue of shares to QIBs through Qualified Institutional Placement for expansion. Besides, other proposals which were approved includes Sai Life Sciences which sought approval for Alpha TC Holdings to transfer its shares held in Sai Life to its wholly-owned subsidiary (WoS) Alpha FDI Holdings and deletion of condition of compounding by the Reserve Bank of India imposed in the approval letter, Health Media Publishing which sought approval for the transfer of its 99.90% shares currently held by Mr Ajit Patel, an NRI to Wellness Technology and Media Private, UK.  The other major proposal approved was of Recipharm Participation BV for incorporating a WoS in India. The pharma firm’s proposal worth Rs. 1,050 crore also included the WoS buying out promoter stake in Nitin Lifesciences and increasing foreign equity to 74 per cent. Also approved was Buimerc Core Investments proposal for transferring of 100 per cent equity shares of NRI investors and Resident Investors to Buimerc Corporation FZE. Meanwhile, FIPB deferred six FDI proposals including Gulf Quarry General Trading F.Z.C., International Asset Reconstruction Company, Raheja QBE General Insurance Company, Equitas Holding, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) and Holcim (India). However, FIPB rejected two proposals including Nigeria’s Mokeme Chiwetal Izuchukwu and Lanarth Developers.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7510.25, down by 26.55 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 7502.80 and 7566.50. There were 12 stocks advancing against 38 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra up by 2.33%, BPCL up by 2.18%, Reliance Industries up by 1.87%, Infosys up by 1.13% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.10%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 3.49%, GAIL India down by 3.13%, Tata Power down by 2.24%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.02% and ICICI Bank down by 1.89% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 240.7 points or 1.21% to 19,576.71, Shanghai Composite tumbels 97.47 points or 3.24% to 2,910.18, Nikkei 225 decreased 93.84 points or 0.54% to 17,147.11 and KOSPI Index was down by 21.14 points or 1.11% to 1,878.87.

 On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 3.55 points or 0.22% to 1,636.99, Jakarta Composite gained 16.6 points or 0.37% to 4,529.78 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 19.13 points or 0.25% to 7,762.01.