Benchmarks add losses; Nifty slips below 7,500 mark

Indian bourses adding losses, continued to trade in red in the late morning session, with the Sensex losing over 150 points and Nifty falling below the 7500 level, as fund and retail investors engaged in reducing positions tracking other Asian markets, which were trading lower ahead of the key policy decision from US Federal Reserve that is set to commence its two-day meet today. Sentiments remained down-beat with the report that the one of the leading global brokerage firm revised its growth forecast for India for 2016 to 7.5 per cent from 7.9 per cent previously and noted that the country’s economy is expected to see tepid recovery largely owing to external factors. According to the global financial services firm, though the domestic macro environment has been improving steadily in the last two years, the pace of recovery has been slower than anticipated, held back by external factors. However, losses remained capped after a sharp decline in the consumer inflation and still negative wholesale inflation in February raised expectations of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India amid disappointing industrial growth and the government staying the course on fiscal consolidation. India's headline inflation rate based on the Consumer Price Index (combined) eased to 5.18 per cent in February compared with 5.69 per cent in January and 5.37 per cent a year ago. Some support also came in from reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1,035.63 crore on March 14, 2016.

On the global front, Asian stocks declined on Tuesday as investors awaited the outcome of this week's meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve for possible insights into the state of global growth and future Fed moves. Sentiments came under pressure after the Bank of Japan held policy steady as expected and offered a bleaker view of the country's economy in the face of lingering anxiety over slowing global growth. Meanwhile, US stocks closed little changed on Monday as lower oil prices pulled energy companies down while hotels and travel-related companies rose.

Back home, stocks from Banking, Capital Goods and Realty counters were supporting the markets’ uptrend, while those from FMCG, IT and Auto counters were adding to the underlying cautious undertone. Furthermore, the gold and jewellary stocks like PC Jeweller, Gitanjali Gems came under pressure, as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has refused to roll back a 1 per cent excise duty on non-silver ornaments proposed in the Budget. In scrip specific development, shares of SpiceJet have rallied after the company announced that counsels of SpiceJet and KAL Airways have agreed before the Delhi High Court that they will jointly approach the regulators, seeking permission to issue warrants. Moreover, Larsen & Toubro has gained after the company’s construction arm -- L&T Constructions won orders worth Rs 1672 crore across its various businesses.

The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2152 stocks traded, 823 stocks advanced, while 1204 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24640.91, down by 163.37 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 24627.16 and 24840.77. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.34%, while Small cap index down by 0.15%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 0.50%, Capital Goods up by 0.44%, Realty up by 0.33%, Consumer Durables up by 0.25% and PSU up by 0.24%, while FMCG down by 0.97%, TECK down by 0.84%, IT down by 0.71%, Auto down by 0.40% and Power down by 0.02% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 1.70%, Axis Bank up by 0.93%, Larsen & Toubro up by 0.82%, BHEL up by 0.57% and Hero MotoCorp up by 0.42%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 4.92%, HDFC down by 2.73%, ITC down by 1.63%, Wipro down by 1.63% and Cipla down by 1.51% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, after rising for five months in a row and surging to its 16 months high in January, India's consumer price index (CPI) or retail inflation eased to 5.18% in February, as compared to 5.69% in January and 5.37% in February last year. The decline in inflation was helped by fall in food prices, after edging up for six straight months. The food price inflation at the consumer level was up 5.3 per cent for February, compared with a 6.85% rise in January and 5.37% in February last year. The food index, that constitutes over 45 per cent of CPI rose at 6.88 per cent in February 2015.

As per the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation the CPI (Rural, Urban, Combined) on Base 2012=100 in February stood at 5.97%, 4.30% and 5.18% respectively compared to 5.79%, 4.95% and 5.37% respectively in the year ago period. Similarly Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) for all India Rural, Urban and Combined stood at 5.96%, 4.23% and 5.30% as against 6.43%, 7.52% and 6.88% in the same month last year. The General Indices (Provisional) for the month of February 2016 for Rural, Urban and Combined were 127.8, 123.8 and 125.9 respectively.  The CFPI for Rural, Urban and Combined for the same month were 129.8, 128.2 and 129.2 respectively.

Component wise, inflation for food and beverages declined to 5.52% in February 2016 from 6.66% in January 2016, Fruit prices dipped 0.7 percent, while prices of pulses rose about 38 percent. Inflation for housing increased to 5.33%, for Clothing and Footwear was 5.52%, Fuel and Light was 4.59%, while for miscellaneous items it was up 4.38% in February 2016, for Pan, tobacco and intoxicants it was 8.39%. Among the states, the retail inflation was as low as 2.70% in Uttarakhand and 3.01% in Jammu and Kashmir, while it was as high as 8.04%  in Odisha and 8.03% in Andhra Pradesh.

While, the Finance Ministry has said that decline in February 2016 inflation numbers (WPI and CPI inflation) is on expected line, with both wholesale and retail inflation levels under check, industry has raised its pitch for the central bank to cut rates and loosen its monetary, ahead of the policy update on April 5.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7493.75, down by 45.00 points or 0.60% after trading in a range of 7483.35 and 7545.20. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI up by 1.76%, PNB up by 1.70%, BPCL up by 1.49%, Yes Bank up by 1.13% and Axis Bank up by 1.04%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 4.93%, HDFC down by 2.92%, Zee Entertainment down by 2.53%, ITC down by 1.86% and Wipro down by 1.86% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red, Hang Seng was down by 0.75%, Taiwan Weighted down by 1.67%, Shanghai Composite down by 1.04%, Jakarta Composite down by 0.58%, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI down by 0.36%, KOSPI Index down by 0.14% and Nikkei 225 was down by 0.91%.