Markets continue to trade weak; Nifty below 7350

Markets continue to trade weak in the early noon session, though the selling has got arrested but the damage done in early trade is clearly visible with the benchmarks still trading lower by over one and a half percent, on the back of broad-based selling across the blue-chips counters, on steep decline in the Asian equities after crude oil fell to its lowest since September 2003. Selling pressure was so strong even record earnings of Reliance Industries failed to impress investors. Sentiments were under pressure on report that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut its global growth forecasts for the third time in less than a year. The IMF cited a sharp slowdown in China trade and weak commodity prices that are hammering Brazil and other emerging markets. Depreciation in the Indian rupee too dampened the sentiment. The rupee tumbled 49 paise to trade over 28-month low at 67.99 against the dollar in early noon trade, mainly due to strong demand for the American unit from importers and banks amid a weak trade in the domestic equity market. Meanwhile, the broader markets have also cracked in-line with the largecaps with BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices losing between around 2 percent each. The market breadth is dismal with 1866 stocks declining versus 399 stocks advancing.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, as a relentless slide in oil prices soured an attempted rally on Wall Street and dealt a further blow to global investors' appetite for riskier assets. Back home, both the sensex and Nifty were trading below their crucial 24,100 and 7,350 levels respectively. In scrip specific development, share of Reliance Industries (RIL) was trading down despite strong Q3 numbers. The company reported its highest-ever quarterly net profit of Rs 7,290 crore for the three months ended December on refinery margins spiking to seven-year high.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24093.10, down by 386.74 points or 1.58% after trading in a range of 24025.11 and 24325.77. There were 2 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.78%, while Small cap index declined by 1.62%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal down by 2.79%, Realty down by 2.68%, Capital Goods down by 2.57%, Bankex down by 2.44% and Power down by 2.14%, while there were no gainers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 0.33% and Wipro up by 0.01%. On the flip side, Adani Ports &Special down by 5.06%, Coal India down by 3.68%, BHEL down by 3.64%, SBI down by 3.39% and Larsen & Toubro down by 3.20% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to further boost trade and investment, India and the UK have agreed to strengthen their economic cooperation in infrastructure and financial services. The discussion was carried in a meeting of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley with his UK counterpart George Osborne as part of the 8th India-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue. Further, in the meeting there were discussions on the possibility of the investing from UK, either directly in projects or through the National India Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) that India has created.

Jaitley has said that Britain has been cooperating and also extremely keen that large British companies, particularly involved in infrastructure financing, start investing in Indian infrastructure. Moreover, India is very much interested in having the British investors look at infrastructure investments in the country for which various possibilities were discussed in the meeting. Highlighting the global economic slowdown, Jaitley said that India is still managing a reasonable growth rate and this move is one of the better options that investors have. While comparing to various countries economic growth across the world, he said that India's growth rate despite challenges is probably the highest in the world among major economies.

The meeting was held to build on the success of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent summit with his British counterpart David Cameron in the UK. In the meeting there was discussion about advancement of cooperation in a range of sectors including infrastructure financing, addressing issues of cross-border tax evasion and avoidance besides opening up of the Indian legal sector to foreign lawyers.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7317.75, down by 117.35 points or 1.58% after trading in a range of 7291.50 and 7470.90. There were 2 stocks advancing against 48 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 0.56% and HCL Tech. up by 0.42%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 5.63%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 5.24%, Yes Bank down by 4.57%, Cairn India down by 4.36% and Coal India down by 4.18% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red; Hang Seng decreased 735.46 points or 3.75% to 18,900.35, Nikkei 225 decreased 561.99 points or 3.3% to 16,486.38, Taiwan Weighted decreased 155.76 points or 1.98% to 7,699.12, KOSPI Index decreased 41.89 points or 2.22% to 1,847.75, Shanghai Composite decreased 38.01 points or 1.26% to 2,969.73, Jakarta Composite decreased 12.06 points or 0.27% to 4,479.68 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 6.87 points or 0.42% to 1,622.35.