Markets continue to trade lower in early noon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower in early noon session, on account of selling by fund and retail investors in the blue-chip counters amid negative cues from the other Asian markets. Cautiousness prevailed in the markets ahead of March series futures and options contracts expiry. Also, investors are patiently waiting for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) monetary policy review due on April 5 amid hopes of a 25 basis points cut in interest rates. Further, depreciation in Indian rupee against dollar too kept pressurizing sentiment. Meanwhile, defence related stocks such as Reliance Defence and Walchandnagar Industries were trading higher after the Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s statement that India’s Defence Procurement Policy (DPP) would be launched online during Defence Expo India-2016, to be held in south Goa.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after Chinese industrial profits rebounded into positive territory and U.S. economic growth was stronger than expected. Back home, both the Sensex and Nifty were trading below their crucial 25,250 and 7,700 levels, respectively. In scrip specific development, shares of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) were trading down after the company is planning to shut its crude unit with a capacity of 1,80,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), for a about a week, from April 1 for maintenance. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25216.61, down by 120.95 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 25179.66 and 25432.94. There were 10 stocks advancing against 19 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 0.46%, while Small cap index down by 0.55%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.13%, Power up by 0.11% and Oil & Gas up by 0.04%, while Realty down by 2.29%, Metal down by 1.82%, Consumer Durables down by 1.04%, FMCG down by 0.61% and PSU down by 0.46% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 0.77%, Adani Ports &Special up by 0.76%, GAIL India up by 0.67%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.62% and Maruti Suzuki up by 0.60%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 2.65%, ICICI Bank down by 1.77%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.58%, HDFC down by 1.36% and Tata Steel down by 1.34% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India’s long anticipated Defence Procurement Policy of 2016 (DPP-2016) would be launched online during Defence Expo India-2016, which is to be held in south Goa from March 28. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has said that the new policy would be accessible on the defence ministry's website with effect from March 28. This will replace the current DPP-2013, and govern all defence acquisitions initiated after April 2.

Parrikar said that the ninth edition of DefExpo India, a biennial exhibition of Land, Naval and Internal Homeland Security Systems, starting in Goa, would be the largest one in its history. He said expo's current edition is one of the most important events in the field of production, exports and Indianisation of the sector. However, he clarified that 'Make in India' in the defence sector and DefExpo are two different things.

Around 1000 companies, both foreign and Indian, are taking part in the exhibition this year to be held at Naqueri-Betul village in South Goa, which is over one and a half times in number of participants in Defexpo 2014. The exhibition will have live demonstration of air display on March 28-29 at the site which is located adjacent to the Arabian Sea. The exhibition would be spread over six lakh square metres of land.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7683.75, down by 32.75 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 7676.90 and 7749.40. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ambuja Cement up by 2.34%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.83%, BPCL up by 1.44%, Power Grid up by 1.13% and ACC up by 0.97%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 4.54%, Hindalco down by 3.12%, Sun Pharma down by 2.69%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.27% and PNB down by 1.95% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Shanghai Composite increased 6.47 points or 0.22% to 2,985.91, while Nikkei 225 increased 90.76 points or 0.53% to 17,093.51, Hang Seng decreased 269.62 points or 1.31% to 20,345.61, Jakarta Composite decreased 58.94 points or 1.22% to 4,768.15, Taiwan Weighted decreased 14.52 points or 0.17% to 8,690.45, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 5.03 points or 0.3% to 1,698.76 and KOSPI Index decreased 1.27 points or 0.06% to 1,982.54.