Markets continue to reel under pressure in early noon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower in early noon session, on account of sustained selling by fund and retail investors in the blue-chip counters. Besides, a sluggish trend at other Asian markets tracking overnight losses in the US after yesterday’s deadly terror attacks in Brussels, too dampened the market sentiment. Sentiment was weighed down with Standard & Poor's report that the Indian banks' asset quality and capitalization are likely to remain under pressure in the next 12 months mainly because of tepid industrial activity and high leverage by some corporates. Investors also remained cautious ahead of a long weekend, as markets will remain closed tomorrow and Friday on account of ‘Holi’ and ‘Good Friday’, respectively. Meanwhile, shares of metal companies continued trading higher on the BSE, with positive stance on aluminum price recovery. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, following the deadly bombings in Belgium. Back home, both the Sensex and Nifty were trading below their crucial 25,200 and 7,700 levels, respectively. In scrip specific development, shares of Kalpataru Power Transmission were trading higher after the company secured orders worth Rs 1,320 crore from Power Grid Corporation. On the flip side, Page Industries has dipped 6.84% after the company’s promoters have sold nearly two percentage point stake of the company during current month through open market.

 The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25197.86, down by 132.63 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 25156.82 and 25322.10. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red and green; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.07%, while Small cap index up by 0.14%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.98%, Capital Goods up by 0.21%, Realty up by 0.21% and Auto up by 0.19%, while Oil & Gas down by 1.22%, FMCG down by 0.70%, Consumer Durables down by 0.68%, Bankex down by 0.53% and PSU down by 0.42% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.41%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.21%, Tata Steel up by 0.86%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.85% and Coal India up by 0.42%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.92%, Reliance Industries down by 1.73%, HDFC down by 1.65%, GAIL India down by 1.12% and HDFC Bank down by 1.10% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid concerns that the country’s export competitiveness has been severely undermined by procedural delays, the government has decided to undertake a joint exercise, involving officials from different ministries, to expedite various clearances required for trade. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by commerce secretary Rita Teaotia earlier this month, which was attended by senior officials from the ministries of finance, commerce, shipping, railways and aviation.

The proposed exercise will be undertaken jointly by the departments of shipping and revenue, and the department of commerce will also keep a vigil. They would also monitor the time taken in the clearance process of exports and imports particularly at Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Tughlakabad Inland Container Depot and Mundra Port.

A reporting system on delays for clearances, particularly at large ports and for important trade segments including auto components and electrical machinery would soon be put in place so that the process can be tracked regularly and delays at every stage can be addressed quickly.

Exports during February 2016 dipped 5.66 percent to $ 20738.60 million, against $21983.43 million in February 2015, due to contraction in shipments of petroleum and engineering goods amid tepid global demand. However, the trade deficit, fell to near five-year low of $ 6541.82 million during February 2016, as compared to $ 6741.95 million in February 2015, as imports too slowed down by 5.03 percent to $ 27280.42 million.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7684.55, down by 30.35 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 7670.80 and 7718.25. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 3.91%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.52%, Idea Cellular up by 2.25%, Yes Bank up by 1.55% and Tata Power up by 1.54%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.85%, HDFC down by 1.76%, Bank of Baroda down by 1.74%, Cairn India down by 1.74% and Reliance Industries down by 1.57% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 148.85 points or 0.72% to 20,517.90, Nikkei 225 decreased 44.62 points or 0.26% to 17,003.93, Jakarta Composite decreased 24.55 points or 0.51% to 4,831.55, Taiwan Weighted decreased 19.59 points or 0.22% to 8,766.09, Shanghai Composite decreased 7.7 points or 0.26% to 2,991.67 and KOSPI Index decreased 1.69 points or 0.08% to 1,995.12. While FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 0.26 points or 0.02% to 1,725.01,