Benchmarks continue to trade lower in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks are reeling under pressure in noon deals as investors opted to book some of their profit after three continuous days of gains. Traders also remained cautious in view of a long weekend as markets will remain closed tomorrow and Friday on account of ‘Holi’ and ‘Good Friday’, respectively. Depreciation in Indian rupee too dampened sentiments. Extending its slide for the third straight day, the rupee shed another 16 paise to 66.87 against the dollar in noon deals on appreciation of the American currency against others overseas.

On the global front, all the Asian equity indices were trading in red at this point of time on account of suspected Islamic State suicide bomb attacks in Brussels. Closer home, losses remained capped up to certain extent on hopes that the Reserve Bank is likely to go for a 50 basis points rate cut next fiscal year and out of this 25 bps cut may be affected in the policy review meet next month amid slackening economic recovery.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25212.67, down by 117.82 points or 0.47% 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 mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.01%, while Small cap index up by 0.16%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.06%, Basic Materials up by 0.63%, Auto up by 0.28% and Industrials up by 0.28%, while Energy down by 1.18%, Oil & Gas down by 1.17%, Consumer Durables down by 0.72%, IT down by 0.50%, FMCG down by 0.48% and Finance down by 0.48% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.02%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.07%, Tata Steel up by 0.92%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.50% and Coal India up by 0.49%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 1.76%, ONGC down by 1.66%, HDFC down by 1.49%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.02% and Wipro down by 0.95% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, terming agriculture as “absolutely critical to the country’s economy” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley launched the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and Unified Package Insurance Scheme. The revamped schemes would help farmers insure their crops against natural calamities in an efficient way because insurance companies will reverse bid for higher sum insured and lower premium. FM said that the schemes would be rolled out in a “mission mode” from April 1 to cover kharif crops.

Jaitley said that this is a crop insurance scheme with a difference, and the difference is absolutely critical to the Indian farmer. He added that since the new scheme was dependent on large volume, it would cover much larger risks at a very low premium. The farmers’ premium would be 2% for Kharif foodgrains and oil seeds crops and 1.5% for rabi crops. In this new scheme, farmers will pay less for more coverage and the compensation will be much more in the event of any crop failure or destruction.

The Finance Minister said that the government aims to cover 50 percent of the farmers, mostly those depending upon rain-fed agriculture and help reduce the prevailing distress in the agriculture sector. He also added that these schemes are a part of the government's efforts to convert India into an insured and pensioned society.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7685.10, down by 29.80 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 7670.80 and 7718.25. There were 20 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 3.97%, Idea Cellular up by 2.50%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.19%, Tata Power up by 1.70% and Yes Bank up by 1.51%. On the flip side, Bank of Baroda down by 1.71%, Reliance Industries down by 1.70%, ONGC down by 1.69%, Cairn India down by 1.68% and HDFC down by 1.66% were the top losers.

Asian equity indices were trading in red; Hang Seng dropped 119.2 points or 0.58% to 20,547.55, Nikkei 225 slipped 47.57 points or 0.28% to 17,000.98, Jakarta Composite shed 25.89 points or 0.53% to 4,830.22, Taiwan Weighted dipped 19.59 points or 0.22% to 8,766.09, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI fell 2.11 points or 0.12% to 1,722.64, KOSPI Index decreased 1.69 points or 0.08% to 1,995.12 and Shanghai Composite was down by 1.53 points or 0.05% to 2,997.83.