Benchmarks trade lower; Nifty slips below 7,300 mark

Markets continue to trade lower in the early noon session on account of sustained capital outflows by foreign funds and selling by retail investors. Besides, a weak trend in other Asian markets following overnight losses in the US following as oil prices tanked again on fears of a deepening economic slowdown too influenced the market sentiment. Further, sentiment remained under pressure with the report that India’s economic growth for the third quarter of this financial year slowed to a four-quarter low at 7.3%, from the revised 7.7% of the previous quarter. Depreciation in the rupee too dampened the sentiment. Indian rupee breaching 68 level mark against the US dollar was trading 23 paise lower at 68.18 on increased demand for US currency from importers and banks. Traders were seen piling position in Oil & Gas stocks while selling was witnessed in IT, TECK, Metal, Realty and Bankex sector stocks.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, as stability concerns put a torch to European bank stocks and sent investors stampeding to only the safest of safe-haven assets. Back home, both the Sensex and Nifty were trading below their crucial 24,000 and 7,300 level, respectively. In scrip specific development, shares of  SRF were trading higher after the company has reported 41% rise in its consolidated net profit after taxes, minority interest and share of profit of associates at Rs 100.68 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015 as compared to Rs 71.40 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Market breadth was negative with 1589 losers and 559 gainers on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 23965.93, down by 321.49 points or 1.32% after trading in a range of 23919.47 and 24076.85. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.46%, while Small cap index down by 1.27%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.13% while, IT down by 3.46%, TECK down by 3.00%, Metal down by 2.27%, Realty down by 1.49%, Bankex down by 1.23% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Lupin up by 1.25%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.17%, NTPC up by 1.01%, ONGC up by 0.77% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.40%. On the flip side, TCS down by 4.20%, Coal India down by 3.83%, Infosys down by 3.66%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.52% and Tata Motors down by 2.19% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India's receipt from trade invisibles which include components such as - services, primary income and secondary income increased marginally to $59.74 billion in July-September quarter of current fiscal as compared to 59.37 billion during the corresponding quarter of 2014-15, according to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data. The payments by India, due to these transactions, however, were down during the second quarter ended September of current fiscal at $30.53 billion, from $30.65 billion a year earlier.

Services includes Travel, transport, insurance, maintenance of Indian embassies and diplomatic mission abroad, remittances by foreign embassies and mission in India, telecommunications, computer and information and financial services, construction which in total stood at $38.75 billion from $38.36 the same quarter in 2014-15.

The primary income receipts stood at $3.91 billion during July - September 2015-16 as compared $3.51 billion same period a year ago. This includes compensation of employee, investment income and other primary income. The secondary income receipts component takes into account remittance by non-residents towards family maintenance and savings and personal gifts, donations to charitable and religious institutions, Gold and silver brought through passenger baggage. The receipts have stood at $17.08 billion in July- September quarter 2015-16 as against $17.5 billion in the same period last fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7290.25, down by 97.00 points or 1.31% after trading in a range of 7280.70 and 7319.70. There were 12 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 1.24%, BPCL up by 1.19%, Lupin up by 1.05%, NTPC up by 1.05% and ONGC up by 1.00%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 4.39%, TCS down by 4.06%, Coal India down by 3.94%, Infosys down by 3.84% and HCL Tech. down by 3.30% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 870.37 points or 5.12% to 16,133.93 and Jakarta Composite decreased 44.52 points or 0.93% to 4,754.42.