Benchmarks continue lackluster trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued its lackluster trade hovering near the neutral line in the late afternoon session in absence of any upside positive triggers. The downfall was capped after Moody’s Investors Service in its report stated that the India’s increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) provides stable financing of the country’s current account deficit (CAD) and is a credit positive, adding that the efforts to liberalize foreign investment limits in several sectors and the ‘Make in India’ campaign are bearing fruit. Traders were seen piling position in Realty, Power and Capital Goods stocks while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables, TECK and IT sector stocks. In scrip specific development, hectic buying activity was witnessed in banking sector stocks after the Reserve Bank of India issued guidelines allowing trading of priority sector lending certificates (PSLCs). Ipca Laboratories was trading in red touching 37-month low after the company informed that the Global Fund, Geneva, Switzerland, which provides financial aid to various diseases, stated that they will not source drugs from the company following a warning letter from the US regulator.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in red while the European markets traded on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below the psychological 7,550 and 24,700 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1391:973 while 148 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 24668.64, down by 16.78 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 24608.51 and 24736.03. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.51%, while Small cap index up by 0.54%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.39%, Power up by 0.95%, Capital Goods up by 0.71%, Metal up by 0.44%, Bankex up by 0.42% while, Consumer Durables down by 0.88%, TECK down by 0.72%, IT down by 0.71%, Auto down by 0.09% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 2.92%, Lupin up by 2.41%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.05%, GAIL India up by 1.03% and BHEL up by 1.01%.

On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.40%, TCS down by 1.53%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.47%, Axis Bank down by 1.04% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.01% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India has offered its commitments on opening goods and services sectors in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations while other members are still struggling to meet their obligations. Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia has said that the offering commitments in goods and services in this mega regional trade agreement reflect how open the Indian economy is. She said that the there are lot of 'myths' about openness of India and whether its economy is really welcoming to the world.

Rita Teaotia further said that within the mega regional trade pact which India is negotiating -the RCEP, will meet all the commitments on the merchandise goods and services. RCEP is a mega trade agreement which is being negotiated among 16 countries including 10 ASEAN members, India, China, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

For the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact and its impact, the secretary said norms in areas like IPR and labour in this agreement may pose challenges to countries including India. TPP is also a mega trade agreement between 12 countries including Australia, the US and Vietnam.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7546.80, up by 0.35 points or 0.00% after trading in a range of 7526.70 and 7569.35. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 3.00%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.24%, Lupin up by 2.03%, ACC up by 1.88% and Tata Power up by 1.80%.

On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.62%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.55%, TCS down by 1.54%, Idea Cellular down by 1.28% and Axis Bank down by 1.11% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Jakarta Composite decreased 28.49 points or 0.59% to 4,838.79, Shanghai Composite decreased 23.46 points or 0.78% to 2,984.96, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 7.01 points or 0.41% to 1,717.28 and KOSPI Index decreased 1.84 points or 0.09% to 1,972.05.

On the other hand, Taiwan Weighted increased 51.25 points or 0.6% to 8,541.50, Nikkei 225 increased 71.68 points or 0.46% to 15,821.52 and Hang Seng increased 104.35 points or 0.51% to 20,370.40.

The European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 30.02 points or 0.49% to 6,166.91, France’s CAC increased 24.4 points or 0.57% to 4,270.31 and Germany’s DAX increased 56.84 points or 0.6% to 9,587.46.