Benchmarks continue to reel under pressure in early noon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade under pressure in early noon session, on account of sustained selling by investors in the blue chips counters. Besides, a weak trend at other Asian markets as traders await the conclusion of the US Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting, too weighed down the market sentiment. Sentiment remained under pressure with India’s goods exports declining for the fifteenth straight month in February 2016 by falling 5.66 per cent to $20.73 billion from $21.98 billion in the same month last year as global demand continued to be weak. Meanwhile, Pharmaceuticals stocks were under strong selling pressure for second consecutive day, weighed down by a weekend order from the government banning over 300 drugs.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, as investors watched for news from a U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting and from China's annual legislative session. Back home, both the Sensex and Nifty were trading below their crucial 24,400 and 7,450 levels, respectively. In scrip specific development, shares of Alphageo (India) were trading higher as the company has received an order worth Rs 102.42 crore from Oil India. The contract is for providing 2D seismic acquisition services in the areas covering parts of Assam & Arunachal Pradesh. The contract is to be executed by November 2018.

The market breadth was negative as 1384 stocks decline while 755 advance.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24378.55, down by 172.62 points or 0.70% after trading in a range of 24367.79 and 24565.30. There were 2 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.26%, while Small cap index down by 0.84%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables down by 3.68%, Metal down by 1.45%, Auto down by 1.23%, Capital Goods down by 1.13% and Realty down by 0.89%, while they were no gainers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 0.68%, Infosys up by 0.55% and NTPC up by 0.00%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 2.47%, Adani Ports &Special down by 2.15%, Sun Pharma Inds. down by 2.02%, GAIL India down by 1.84% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.71% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, aiming at a massive investment of more than Rs 8 lakh crore over the next five years, Railways has firmed up various models to attract private participation for capacity augmentation of the state-run transporter. A participative policy for rail connectivity and capacity augmentation has been in place with five models for building rail connectivity. Non-Government Railway (NGR), Joint Venture (JV), Build Operate and Transfer (BOT), capacity augmentation with funding provided by customers and capacity augmentation through annuity are five models to attract private investment.

Further, the private companies which have been permitted to build rail connectivity under the participative policy includes JSW Jaigarh Port for Jaigarh port rail connectivity, Rewas Port for Rewas port rail connectivity, Balaji Infra Development for Lalitpur-Udaipura (electrification) and Dhamra Port for Dhamra port rail connectivity.

Other firms which are working under Railways' participative policy includes  Navayuga Engineering Company for Astrangra port rail connectivity, Nargol Rail Link for Nargol port rail connectivity, Simar Port for Chhara port rail connectivity, Hazira Port Infra for Hazira port rail connectivity and Dighi Port Liited for Dighi port rail connectivity.  Moreover, the government has also permitted 100 percent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in construction, operation and maintenance of suburban corridors through public private partnership (PPP) for high speed train projects and dedicated freight lines

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7415.60, down by 45.00 points or 0.60% after trading in a range of 7410.75 and 7470.40. There were 6 stocks advancing against 44 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ITC up by 0.93%, BPCL up by 0.84%, Infosys up by 0.65%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.11% and Wipro up by 0.05%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 4.29%, Vedanta down by 3.18%, Asian Paints down by 2.29%, Sun Pharma down by 2.02% and GAIL India down by 2.01% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 1.31 points or 0.08% to 1,692.23, KOSPI Index increased 4.35 points or 0.22% to 1,974.32, Shanghai Composite increased 8.04 points or 0.28% to 2,872.40 and Taiwan Weighted increased 87.96 points or 1.02% to 8,699.14, while Nikkei 225 decreased 127.92 points or 0.75% to 16,989.15, Hang Seng decreased 22.25 points or 0.11% to 20,266.52 and Jakarta Composite decreased 6.19 points or 0.13% to 4,843.59.