Benchmarks continue weak trade in late morning session

The Indian markets have dipped further in the late morning session and traders continue to book profit on the global worries. Investors remained cautious ahead of the central bank meetings in the US and Japan this week for future policy moves. Depreciation in Indian rupee too dampened sentiments. Indian rupee was trading weak at 66.64 due to sustained demand for the US currency from importers. However, losses remained capped with the report that important legislation, including the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, Enemy Property Bill, Railways Appropriation Bill and Afforestation Fund Bill, besides the ratification of President's Rule in Uttarakhand, are on the agenda of the parliament session, which beginning today. Some support also came with PHD Chamber of Commerce’s report that India's economy is likely to clock nearly 8 per cent growth in the current fiscal on the back of robust private consumption, which has benefited from lower energy prices and higher real incomes.

On the global front, Asian stock markets kicked-off the week this Monday on a weaker footing, as telecommunication companies led Japanese shares lower and investors awaited policy decisions this week from the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan. Moreover, lower oil prices also weighed down on the region’s indices. Crude oil prices slipped after rising on Friday and notching their third straight week of gains as market sentiment turned more upbeat amid signs a persistent global supply glut may be easing.  Meanwhile, US stock markets finished Friday's session essentially flat, but spent most of the day in the red, as the market finally got around to noticing its earnings season.

Back home, majority of the sector indices were trading negative , Metal, Power, Oil & Gas and FMCG stocks witnessing selling pressure  while information technology (IT) and Capital Goods (CG) companies showing some strength . In scrip specific development, shares of Kalpataru Power Transmission have surged after the company secured new orders/notification of award in excess of Rs 1,150 crore. Furthermore, Filatex India was locked in 20% upper circuit at Rs 51.80 on the BSE after the company reported strong earnings for the quarter ended March 31, 2016. The company’s Net profit for the quarter jumped by 364% to Rs 13.6 crore compared to Rs 2.9 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.  Meanwhile, key earnings to be posted some of the bluechips including Axis Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and ICICI Bank, FII trend, rupee and crude oil movement along with global cues will dictate the trend on the bourses for the week.

The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2121 stocks traded, 902 stocks advanced, while 1115 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25715.15, down by 122.99 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 25687.96 and 25891.03. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.05%, while Small cap index down by 0.11%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were TECK up by 0.34%, Capital Goods up by 0.32%, IT up by 0.18% and Bankex up by 0.07%, while Metal down by 1.42%, Power down by 0.96%, Oil & Gas down by 0.92%, FMCG down by 0.70% and PSU down by 0.50% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.39%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.15%, TCS up by 0.76%, SBI up by 0.58% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.39%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 2.97%, Reliance Industries down by 2.09%, Tata Steel down by 2.06%, Sun Pharma Inds. down by 1.52% and HDFC down by 1.37% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has fixed a 2017 end target to transfer all subsidies through an Aadhar enabled Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT). In order to achieve this, the government is now on a campaign mode to complete Aadhaar seeding in its databases and DBT bank accounts which stands at 63 per cent at present.

With the new Aadhaar Act in force now, government has to aim to make all payments through the Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB) to eliminate any chance of leakage or payments to wrong beneficiaries. The target is to complete 100 per cent Aadhaar seeding by December 2017 into bank accounts of those receiving the three major benefits --MGNREGA, LPG Pahal and the National Social Assistance Programme

Kerosene subsidy, part of PDS (Public Distribution System) is planned to be brought on the DBT platform by March 2017. The longest target is for fertiliser subsidy coming under DBT--end of 2018. All this will culminate into 100 per cent Aadhaar-enabled DBT by 2017-end.

Beneficiaries getting subsidies through DBT into their bank accounts have crossed the 30-crore mark. According to the government report, in February, the centre transferred Rs 4,707 crore to 30.01-crore beneficiaries through the DBT mechanism, but only 35 per cent of such transfers -- Rs 1,630 crore to be precise -- were using the Aadhaar APB while the rest were using simple electronic fund transfers into bank accounts of the beneficiaries.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7862.25, down by 37.05 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 7856.25 and 7911.00. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 2.27%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.01%, TCS up by 0.85%, Idea Cellular up by 0.72% and Yes Bank up by 0.51%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 3.24%, Hindalco down by 3.17%, Reliance Industries down by 2.05%, Tata Steel down by 2.04% and Sun Pharma down by 1.70% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 was down by 0.82%, Hang Seng down by 0.65%, Shanghai Composite down by 0.82%, Jakarta Composite down by 0.54%, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI down by 0.31% and KOSPI Index down by 0.14%. On the other hand, Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.12%.