Markets continue to trade red in early noon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in red in early noon session, on account of profit booking in the blue chip counters amid weak cues from the Asian markets after oil prices took a fresh spill on news, Kuwaiti oil workers ended a three-day strike, leaving markets suddenly directionless. Sentiment remained down beat after the India’s merchandise exports extending decline for the sixteen months in row, contracted by 5.47 percent to $22718.69 million in the month of March. For the whole of 2015-16, exports declined by 15.8 per cent to a 5-year low of $261.13 billion due to fragile global demand and low commodity prices. However, losses remained capped with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the India's economic growth could surge to 8.5%, especially if the monsoon is as bountiful as forecast and that he hopes interest rates will fall further as prices trend lower.

In scrip specific development, shares of Steel Strips Wheels (SSWL) were trading higher after the company has received exports order for supply of high speed trailer (Caravan) steel wheels for the European trailer market.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25755.12, down by 61.24 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 25724.49 and 25956.34. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red and green ; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.09%, while Small cap index up by 0.29%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.83%, Consumer Durables up by 1.53%, Power up by 0.79%, Capital Goods up by 0.29% and PSU up by 0.12%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.74%, Realty down by 0.70%, TECK down by 0.70%, IT down by 0.58% and FMCG down by 0.48% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 4.60%, GAIL India up by 2.50%, Axis Bank up by 2.24%, NTPC up by 1.43% and Coal India up by 1.20%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 1.91%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.91%, TCS down by 1.86%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.16% and Sun Pharma Inds. down by 0.96% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid rising concern over the declining shipments, exporters body Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) has demanded the government to announce steps to contain the fall in exports and boost out-bound shipments. FIEO further said that it has become even more serious that the fall in exports during the last quarter of FY16 was on a low base.

It said that investment-linked benefit should be announced for MSME exporters, line of credit or buyers' credit to boost exports and setting up an Export Development Fund. Also, it has called for steps like declaring exports as a priority sector for the lending purpose and restoration of interest subsidy to all exporters.

FIEO stated that the continuous slowdown in demand in global markets and liquidity problem are primarily responsible for the drop in out-bound shipments in 2015-16 and that uncertainty on the policy front, ease of doing business and high cost of credit did play a smaller role in the decline.

India’s merchandise exports extending decline for the sixteen months in row, contracted by 5.47 percent to $22718.69 million in the month of March. For the whole of 2015-16, exports declined by 15.8 per cent to a 5-year low of $261.13 billion due to fragile global demand and low commodity prices.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7890.40, down by 24.30 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 7878.85 and 7950.40. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 4.59%, Hindalco up by 3.61%, GAIL India up by 2.81%, Axis Bank up by 2.19% and Tech Mahindra up by 2.18%. On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 2.36%, Reliance Industries down by 2.16%, Zee Entertainment down by 1.96%, Bharti Infratel down by 1.80% and TCS down by 1.77% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 312.91 points or 1.46% to 21,123.30, Taiwan Weighted decreased 119.24 points or 1.38% to 8,514.48, Shanghai Composite decreased 110.56 points or 3.63% to 2,932.27, Jakarta Composite decreased 10.63 points or 0.22% to 4,871.30, KOSPI Index decreased 5 points or 0.25% to 2,006.36 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 4.32 points or 0.25% to 1,706.83, while Nikkei 225 increased 40.07 points or 0.24% to 16,914.51.