Benchmarks trade lower in noon deals; Nifty breaches 7,700 mark

Indian equity benchmarks continued to reel under pressure in noon deals with frontline gauges declining below their crucial 7,700 (Nifty) and 21,200 (Sensex) levels despite firm macroeconomic data as investors sought to profit booking at higher levels. Traders failed to get any sense of relief with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley pegging India's GDP growth rate at 7.6 percent for the fiscal 2015-16 and expressing hope for better numbers next year. Sentiments also remained down-beat with the Centre’s fiscal deficit increasing to Rs 5.73 lakh crore or 107.1 per cent of the FY16 revised estimate in first 11 months of the year, but officials expressed confidence that the full-year deficit estimate of 3.9 per cent of the GDP would be met.

On the global front, Asian equity indices were trading in red at this point of time as caution ruled ahead of surveys on global manufacturing and the latest reading on US jobs. Back home, oil and gas stocks remained buzzing as the government has announced a ceiling price of $6.61/mBtu on gross calorific value basis for domestic natural gas produced from difficult areas for six months starting April 1. Auto stocks also remained in focus with auto related companies started announcing their monthly sales numbers.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25196.25, down by 145.61 points or 0.57% after trading in a range of 25193.59 and 25354.94. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.13%, while Small cap index up by 0.75%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.25%, Capital Goods up by 1.48%, Power up by 0.72%, Industrials up by 0.72% and FMCG up by 0.43%, while Energy down by 0.99%, Oil & Gas down by 0.97%, Metal down by 0.83%, TECK down by 0.60% and IT down by 0.36% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 3.96%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.87%, ITC up by 1.51%, Wipro up by 0.83% and Axis Bank up by 0.71%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.36%, GAIL India down by 2.48%, TCS down by 2.01%, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.90% and ONGC down by 1.77% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India’s fiscal deficit for first 11 months of the financial year 2015-16 has surpassed the Revised Estimates (RE) of the 2015-16 Union Budget by seven per cent.  According to the data released by the Controller General of Accounts, India’ s fiscal deficit for April- February 2015-16 stood at Rs 5.72 lakh crore or 107.1 per cent of the Budget Estimates of Rs 5.35 lakh crore (Revised Estimates). This means the government must have ensured a fiscal surplus of Rs 40,000 crore in March to meet the financial year’s target. The deficit was 117.5 percent of the full-year target during the same period a year ago.

The total receipts for April-February period stood at Rs 9.8 lakh crore accounted for 78.6 per cent of the RE at Rs 12.5 lakh crore. This was closer to that in the corresponding period of last year, when these had constituted 87.2 per cent of RE. This was despite the government's tax receipts swelling to Rs 7.3 lakh crore till February, 77.7 per cent of the RE at  Rs 9.5 lakh crore. At this time a year before, taxes were 71.7 per cent of RE. The non-tax revenue for April-February period was 2.11 lakh crore accounted for 81.7 per cent of BE. The non-debt capital receipt was at Rs 35,951 crore till February represented 81.3 per cent of the RE. However, this was also lower than the 96.5 per cent of RE realised till February of last year. The government has almost halved the target of non-debt capital receipts, mostly divestment proceeds, to Rs 44,217 crore in the RE against Rs 80,253 crore pegged in the BE.

The data further highlighted that the total expenditure touched 15.55 lakh crore during April-February. The plan expenditure of government during the period was Rs 3.97 lakh crore or 83.2 percent as against Rs 4.77 lakh crore of the full year revised estimate and non-Plan Expenditure was Rs 11.58 lakh crore or 88.6 percent as against Rs 13.08 lakh crore of the full year revised. Further, the revenue deficit was Rs 3.9 lakh crore or 114.4 per cent.

The government is likely collect a significant revenue, both tax and non-tax including disinvestment in PSUs, in March. It has collected as much as Rs 4,500 crore through buyback of shares by PSUs. Government has exceeded fiscal deficit target for the financial year 2015-16 at the end of February but the final numbers for 2015-16 will be known once the March data is released. While presenting the Budget on February 29, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that the government would stick to the fiscal deficit target of 3.9 per cent of GDP for 2015-16 ending March 31.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7,697.65, down by 40.75 points or 0.53% after trading in a range of 7692.05 and 7740.15. There were 16 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BHEL up by 3.82%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.28%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.92%, Bank of Baroda up by 1.67% and ITC up by 1.52%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.44%, Idea Cellular down by 2.31%, GAIL India down by 2.30%, Bosch down by 2.09% and TCS down by 2.04% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 tumbled 594.51 points or 3.55% to 16,164.16, Hang Seng declined 220.29 points or 1.06% to 20,556.41, Taiwan Weighted dropped 87.28 points or 1% to 8,657.55, KOSPI Index fell 22.28 points or 1.12% to 1,973.57, Jakarta Composite slipped 10.08 points or 0.21% to 4,835.29, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI shed 6.86 points or 0.4% to 1,710.72 and Shanghai Composite was down by 1.42 points or 0.05% to 3,002.50.