Benchmarks continue to trade in red in late morning session

After getting gap down opening, Indian benchmark indices continued to trade in negative territory in later morning session on sustained selling by funds and retail investors amid weak Asian cues. Sentiments turned down-beat after US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen in a testimony to Congress stated that global economic turmoil and massive sell-off in global equity markets could spook the US economy, rekindling hopes of a delay in interest rate raise. Further, sentiments got undermined with the report that India continues to report over 7 per cent GDP growth, but its momentum has weakened and the country's growth is well ‘below trend’. According to the report, India's GDP and gross value added (GVA) grew by 7.3 per cent and 7.1 per cent, respectively in October-December 2015, reflecting a slowing growth momentum from the first half of this fiscal. Besides, depreciating rupee against the dollar also Weighted the sentiment. Indian rupee lost 8 paise to 67.93 against the US dollar in early trade due to increased demand for the American unit from importers and banks.

On the global front, Asian markets showing sluggish trade on Thursday as markets in Hong Kong and Seoul joined a global sell-off in their first day of trading this week. However, the absence of Japan for a holiday might actually help the mood as Tokyo has been the hardest hit market this week. Nikkei declined by around 7.6% in just two sessions as a surging yen dimmed the outlook for exports and profits. Overnight, the S&P 500 ended flat on Wednesday, losing gains late in the session as investors digested comments by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, who kept options open for more rate hikes but also saw risks to the US economy. Meanwhile, Oil prices slid on Thursday as record US crude inventories and worries about a global economic slowdown weighed on markets.

Back on street, all sectoral indices on the BSE were in the red with Metal index emerging as the top loser down by around one and half percent followed by Oil & Gas and FMCG indices among others. Furthermore, PSU banks have continued their selling pressure after a lot of banks reported huge losses on account of rising bad loans in the December quarter. In scrip specific development, shares of Tata Motors have gained after the company reported 16% increase in its global sales, including that of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) vehicles, at 93,355 units in January as compared to 80,499 units sold in January 2015. On the other hand, shares of Steel Authority of India have declined after the company has reported a net loss of Rs 1528.73 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015 as compared to net profit of Rs 579.09 crore for the same quarter in the previous year.

The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2295 stocks traded, 493 stocks advanced, while 1690 stocks declined on the BSE. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 23571.82, down by 187.08 points or 0.79% after trading in a range of 23523.64 and 23758.46. 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 0.88%, while Small cap index down by 1.24%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal down by 1.43%, Oil & Gas down by 1.41%, FMCG down by 1.25%, PSU down by 1.12% and Power down by 1.03%, while there were no gainers on BSE sectoral space.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 2.11%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.88%, Tata Motors up by 1.30%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.25% and Cipla up by 0.33%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 3.39%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.28%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.98%, ITC down by 1.93% and BHEL down by 1.84% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that investors from the UAE could participate in India's maiden sovereign wealth fund National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), which has been set up to fund infrastructure projects, during his meeting with visiting UAE Minister of Economy Sultan Al Mansoori .

The Rs 40,000-crore NIIF will have government holding of 49 per cent and the rest will be of private investors. UAE Minister Mansoori notified that the various institutions from Gulf have already invested in sectors, like infrastructure. He reiterated that the different agencies of UAE will continue their efforts to widen their relationship with India.

Further, both the countries stressed on need for increasing cooperation in the fields of innovation and small and medium enterprises (SME) and agreed to deepen their engagement in the area of innovation so as to harness respective capabilities in a mutually beneficial manner. In this regard UAE Minister said that a strategy has been developed by them and they have also set up an Innovation Council to spearhead the activities.

While highlighting SMEs sector as critical for the growth of the economy and employment, it was also decided that the respective institutions and industry associations engaged with SMEs would cooperate to harness the growth of SME sector in both the countries

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7151.40, down by 64.30 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 7142.65 and 7208.65. There were 11 stocks advancing against 39 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI up by 1.86%, Bank of Baroda up by 1.67%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.59%, Idea Cellular up by 1.45% and Tata Motors up by 1.23%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 3.95%, ONGC down by 3.44%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.84%, Vedanta down by 2.68% and Zee Entertainment down by 2.61% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red, Jakarta Composite was down by 0.83%, Hang Seng down by 3.95%, KOSPI Index down by 2.78% and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 0.16%.