Markets continue to real under pressure in early noon session

Extending their losses, Indian equity markets continued to trade lower in early noon session due to profit booking by investors in the blue chips counters amid weak cues from global markets. Traders also remained concerned with report that India’s merchandise exports fell for an eighteenth continuous month in May. However, the rate of fall was the lowest since November 2014, when outbound trade had last grown. Exports contracted 0.79 percent to $22.17 billion in May, against $22.34 billion in May 2015, government data showed on Wednesday. The rate of fall has decreased for the past six months, barring April when it spiked to 6.74 percent.

Besides, decline in commodity prices and sluggishness in the Chinese economy, too hit markets sentiment. Asian markets were trading lower at this point of time with Japanese stocks falling behind their peers after the Bank of Japan (BoJ) kept monetary policy steady as was widely expected. Back home, both the Sensex and Nifty were trading down below their crucial 26,350 and 8,100 level, respectively. In scrip specific development, share of associate banks such as state bank of Travancore, State bank of Bikaner Jaipur and state bank of Mysore were trading higher for the second straight trading session, after the Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave a go-ahead to the merger of five associate lenders and Bharatiya Mahila Bank with the SBI.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26325.02, down by 401.32 points or 1.50% after trading in a range of 26314.91 and 26686.03. There were 1 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.05%, while Small cap index down by 1.14%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex down by 1.97%, Realty down by 1.69%, Capital Goods down by 1.60%, Power down by 1.57% and Auto down by 1.48%, while there were no gainers on the sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 0.73%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 3.54%, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.26%, Adani Ports &Special down by 2.56%, NTPC down by 2.31% and Bharti Airtel down by 2.20% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, oil marketing companies (OMCs) have hiked prices of petrol and diesel by 5 paise a litre and Rs 1.26 per litre respectively. The price changes effective from midnight of June 15 and 16 were due to surge in global oil prices. Following the hike, Petrol will cost Rs 65.65 a litre in National capital as against Rs 65.60 per litre currently. Similarly, diesel will cost Rs 55.19 per litre in the national capital as against Rs 53.93 per litre currently.

This is the fourth increase in auto fuel prices since May 1. Petrol price was last hiked by Rs 2.58 a litre on June 1 and diesel by Rs 2.26 a litre following oil prices crossing $50 per barrel mark. Petrol prices in the four hikes have been raised by Rs 4.52 a litre, while diesel rates have gone up by Rs 7.72 per litre. After discounting the April 16 reduction, petrol prices have jumped by Rs 9.04 per litre since mid-March and diesel by Rs 11.05 per litre.

According to IOC the country's largest fuel retailer, the hike in prices is due to the movement in the international oil market and INR-USD exchange rate. It further said that the current level of international product prices of Petrol and Diesel and the Rupee-Dollar exchange rate warrant increase in price of Petrol and Diesel, the impact of which is being passed on to the consumers with this price revision.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8078.40, down by 128.20 points or 1.56% after trading in a range of 8074.45 and 8180.65. There were 1 stocks advancing against 50 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainer on Nifty was GAIL India up by 1.03%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 3.47%, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.37%, Bharti Infratel down by 3.04%, Indusind Bank down by 2.83% and Ultratech Cement down by 2.82% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading lower; Nikkei 225 decreased 485.44 points or 3.05% to 15,434.14, Hang Seng decreased 445.13 points or 2.17% to 20,022.39, Taiwan Weighted decreased 112.23 points or 1.3% to 8,494.14, KOSPI Index decreased 16.84 points or 0.86% to 1,951.99, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 11.19 points or 0.69% to 1,616.77, Shanghai Composite decreased 6.38 points or 0.22% to 2,880.83 and Jakarta Composite decreased 2.74 points or 0.06% to 4,812.09.