Bloodbath continues on Dalal Street; Nifty breaches 7,150 mark

Indian equity benchmarks continue to trade southward in noon deals with frontline gauges trading with a cut of over a percent as investors opted to book profit after recent gains amid a lacklustre trade in Asia. Sentiments also remained down-beat on report that exports of over half of the sectors, out of the 30 closely monitored by the Commerce Ministry, were in the negative zone in January due to a fall in global prices and demand. Market participants remained on sidelines eyeing the developments regarding the crucial legislations like GST amendment bill in the ongoing budget session of Parliament.

On the global front, Asian shares retreated from a seven-week high on Tuesday as the oil price rally that boosted global equity markets reversed, while the euro and sterling were hit by uncertainty over Britain's membership in the European Union. Back home, selling was both brutal and wide-based as none of sectoral indices on BSE were spared. Counters, which featured in the list of worst performers, include banking, finance and realty. The broader indices too were reeling under pressure, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 632 shares on the gaining side against 1,643 shares on the losing side while 149 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 23530.60, down by 258.19 points or 1.09% after trading in a range of 23514.57 and 23851.51. There were 5 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.09%, while Small cap index down by 0.88%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex down by 2.03%, Finance down by 1.69%, Realty down by 1.54%, Telecom down by 1.46% and FMCG down by 1.34%, while there were no gainers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 0.79%, Sun Pharma up by 0.74%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 0.19%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.15% and Asian Paints up by 0.12%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 2.90%, SBI down by 2.39%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.19%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.00% and Bajaj Auto down by 1.87% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid fall in global prices and demand, exports of over half of the sectors out of the 30 closely monitored by the Commerce Ministry were in the negative zone in the month of January 2016. Outbound shipments of as many as 17 sectors, dipped last month. According to the data of the Commerce Ministry, top two sectors - engineering and petroleum products contracted 27.6 percent and 35.18 percent, respectively during the month.

Further, agri-products, which constitute over 10 percent of the country's total shipments, too recorded a negative growth during the month under review. Overall, eight out of 13 main agriculture products slipped into negative territory.  Exports of rice, cashew and oil meals fell 33.46 percent, 24.6 per cent and 77.5 percent, respectively.

On the other hand, exports of pharmaceuticals, plastic, carpet, tea and coffee have recorded positive growth in January 2016.  Exporters' body Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has said that in order to boost the shipments, the government should announce incentives in the Budget. It said that the inverted duty structure in respect of various items may be given due consideration in the Budget as it not only effects exports but also the manufacturing sector.

India’s merchandise exports extending its decline for the fourteen months in row, plunged by 13.6 per cent in January 2016 at $21.07 billion as against $24.39 billion in January last year. Decline in these exports has been instrumental in dragging down India's overall merchandise exports. Due to continuous dip, the total merchandise shipments are expected to reach a figure of $270 billion in 2015-16.  India has aimed at taking exports of goods and services to $900 billion by 2020 and raising the country's share in world exports to 3.5 percent from 2 percent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7147.55, down by 87.00 points or 1.20% after trading in a range of 7143.20 and 7241.70. There were 4 stocks advancing against 46 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 0.75%, Sun Pharma up by 0.71%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.17%, Tata Power up by 0.09%. On the flip side, PNB down by 3.18%, Idea Cellular down by 3.11%, ICICI Bank down by 3.00%, SBI down by 2.61% and Hindustan Unilever down by 2.55% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 59 points or 0.37% to 16,052.05, Shanghai Composite declined 41.83 points or 1.43% to 2,885.34, Jakarta Composite shed 31.99 points or 0.68% to 4,676.63, Hang Seng slipped 17.04 points or 0.09% to 19,447.05 and KOSPI Index was down by 2.14 points or 0.11% to 1,914.22.

On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 7.93 points or 0.47% to 1,682.52 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 7.96 points or 0.1% to 8,334.64.