Benchmarks continue weak trade in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks continued their weak trade in the late morning session on account of selling in front line blue chip counters. Sentiments remained down-beat with the report that India’s merchandise exports fell for the 14th consecutive month with shipments in January, 2016 contracting 13.6 percent year-on-year to $21 billion due to a steep fall in shipment of petroleum products and engineering goods amid tepid global demand. Apart from this, the decline was spread across sectors such as readymade garments, leather products, chemicals, rice and cereals and marine products.  Imports also fell during the month by 11 per cent to $28.7 billion that resulted in the trade deficit narrowing to an 11-month low of $7.6 billion. Investors remained cautious with India Ratings maintaining a negative outlook for infrastructure sector for the next fiscal as it sees a high concentration of poorly performing assets. Besides, a weakness in rupee against the dollar, also weighed on market sentiment. Indian rupee was trading lower by 15 paise at 68.22 against the American currency in early trade as the dollar firmed up overseas.

On the global front, Asian markets extended their gains on Tuesday as a combination of stabilizing Chinese markets, a rebound in oil prices and solid US consumption data drove investors to look for bargains after last week’s rout. Oil prices surged to their highest levels in more than a week as news of a meeting of top officials from the world's biggest oil producers spurred speculation of an eventual deal to tackle a deep supply glut.

Back home, stocks from Power, Oil & Gas and PSU counters were supporting the markets’ uptrend, while those from Capital Goods, Metal and FMCG counters were adding to the underlying cautious undertone. In scrip specific development, shares of Gati have rallied after the report that the company is exploring strategies for growth to align with their vision of delivering 1 million packages everyday by 2020. On the other hand, shares of United Breweries (Holdings) have declined after the company received a letter from Punjab National Bank (PNB) on February 15, 2016, whereby the bank has declared the company as a ‘Willful Defaulter’.

The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2210 stocks traded, 952 stocks advanced, while 1160 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 23502.37, down by 51.75 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 23424.94 and 23692.08. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.06%, while Small cap index down by 0.26%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 0.92%, Oil & Gas up by 0.12%, PSU up by 0.10%, Auto up by 0.09% and Realty up by 0.05%, while Capital Goods down by 0.94%, Metal down by 0.67%, FMCG down by 0.65%, Bankex down by 0.62% and IT down by 0.60% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Adani Ports &Special up by 5.62%, NTPC up by 3.72%, ONGC up by 2.00%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.33% and Tata Motors up by 1.14%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.43%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.27%, ICICI Bank down by 1.06%, Sun Pharma Inds. down by 0.94% and SBI down by 0.87% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal expects nearly about $1 trillion investments in the power sector including coal renewables by 2030 and added that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has calculated a $ 2.3 trillion opportunity by 2035 in the sector. Goyal said that the efforts taken by the government have ushered the power sector in a new level of growth altogether and said that in the  short term for the next five years till 2020, the sector is likely to attract nearly $250 billion.

Further he said that India can take its growth to 7-8% with the help of UDAY scheme, which will act as fulcan to bring transformational change in the power sector. He is confident that initiatives such as UDAY, the tariff policy, efforts for bringing transparency in coal auction, the coal-swapping policy, and the one nation one grid initiative will help to achieve the target.

He further said that his Ministry’s focus is on energy efficiency by increasing the use of LED which will attract an investment of $5-7 billion. The ministry has taken a huge step by replacing street lights with LED bulbs and this initiative will help to save nearly 100 billion units of electricity and ensure nearly Rs. 40,000 crore of savings annually.

However he said that the transmission and distribution sector would see an investment of $50 billion by 2020. Additionally, on the industrial equipment front, he expects an investment of $25 billion. He  also said that Power Ministry will soon come up with a new set of norms and documents for ultra mega power projects.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7140.95, down by 22.00 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 7123.40 and 7204.65. There were 19 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports &Special up by 6.09%, NTPC up by 3.93%, Tata Power up by 3.11%, ONGC up by 1.67% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.47%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 3.67%, Bank of Baroda down by 2.98%, BPCL down by 2.01%, Asian Paints down by 1.41% and PNB down by 1.18% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 0.71%, KOSPI Index up by 1.46%, Shanghai Composite up by 2.83%, Taiwan Weighted up by 1.73%, Nikkei 225 up by 0.9% and Hang Seng was up by 1.64%.on the other hand, Jakarta Composite was down by 0.28%.