Benchmarks continue weak trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks extended their losses to continue their weak trade in the late afternoon session on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters. The sentiments were under pressure after India’s fiscal deficit for first 11 months of the financial year 2015-16 surpassed the Revised Estimates (RE) of the 2015-16 Union Budget by 7%. According to the data released by the Controller General of Accounts, the country’s fiscal deficit for April- February 2015-16 stood at Rs 5.72 lakh crore or 107.1% of the Budget Estimates of Rs 5.35 lakh crore (RE). Traders were seen piling up position in Realty, Capital Goods and Power stocks while selling was witnessed in TECK, IT and Oil & Gas sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Alkem Laboratories was trading under pressure as the UK health regulator made eight observations after inspecting its manufacturing plant at Taloja, Maharashtra. IVRCL was trading in red for a second straight session following the collapse of an under construction flyover yesterday in Kolkata which is being built by the company. On the other hand, Bharat Wire Ropes was trading in green after debuting on the bourses today rising by over 5%, against the issue price of Rs 45.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in red, while the European markets were trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 7,650 and 25,100 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1490:847 while 111 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25153.61, down by 188.25 points or 0.74% after trading in a range of 25119.35 and 25354.94. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green and red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.11%, while Small cap index up by 0.57%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.43%, Capital Goods up by 1.21%, Power up by 0.79%, Consumer Durables up by 0.51%, FMCG up by 0.39% while, TECK down by 1.77%, IT down by 1.50%, Oil & Gas down by 1.18%, Metal down by 0.95%, Auto down by 0.85% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were BHEL up by 3.82%, ITC up by 1.81%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.63%, NTPC up by 1.01% and Axis Bank up by 1.00%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 5.13%, TCS down by 2.93%, Adani Ports &Special down by 2.91%, ONGC down by 2.44% and GAIL India down by 2.19% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India’s total external debt rose marginally to $480.2 billion at the end of December 2015, up $4.9 billion, or almost 1 percent, compared to that of $475.8 billion as of March 31, 2015, largely driven by private commercial borrowings and non-resident Indian (NRI) deposits, finance ministry said in its external debt report. However, it marked a decline from $483.2 billion at the end of September 2015.

However, year-on-year, the debt grew 4.7 per cent. Long-term external debt increased 2.2 per cent or $8.8 billion; short-term debt fell 4.6 per cent or $3.9 billion. Government (sovereign) external debt stood at $90.7 billion at December end 2015 while non-government debt amounted to $389.5 billion. The report said India's external debt has remained within manageable limits as indicated by external debt indicators. Further it said that the prudent external debt management policy of government of India has helped in containing rise in external debt and maintaining a comfortable external debt position.

Component-wise, the commercial borrowings at the end December 2015 stood at $183.6 billion a rise of 1.5 per cent. NRI deposits at $122.6 billion rose 6.5 per cent over end-March. Commercial borrowings and NRI deposits together accounted for 63.8 per cent of total external debt (long-term and short-term) at end-December. Commercial borrowings accounted for 38.2 percent of the total external debt, followed by NRI deposits at 25.5 percent and multilateral debt of 11.1 percent.

The report said that the 'policy continues to focus' on monitoring long- and short-term debt, raising sovereign loans on concessional terms with longer maturities, regulating ECBs, and rationalising interest rates on Non-Resident Indian deposits.

For valuation effect, the report said the US dollar appreciated against Indian rupee and other most major currencies between March 2015 and December 2015. Excluding the valuation effect, the external debt would have been higher at $488.1 billion at December end 2015.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7690.55, down by 47.85 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 7666.10 and 7740.15. There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BHEL up by 4.08%, Bank of Baroda up by 3.27%, ITC up by 1.81%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.78% and Axis Bank up by 1.52%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 4.79%, Bosch down by 3.53%, TCS down by 2.99%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.82% and Idea Cellular down by 2.59% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 594.51 points or 3.55% to 16,164.16, Hang Seng decreased 277.78 points or 1.34% to 20,498.92, Taiwan Weighted decreased 87.28 points or 1% to 8,657.55, KOSPI Index decreased 22.28 points or 1.12% to 1,973.57, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 10.96 points or 0.64% to 1,706.62 and Jakarta Composite decreased 20.68 points or 0.43% to 4,824.69.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite increased 5.62 points or 0.19% to 3,009.53. 

The European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 72.77 points or 1.18% to 6,102.13, Germany’s DAX decreased 151.8 points or 1.52% to 9,813.71 and France’s CAC decreased 74.51 points or 1.7% to 4,310.55.