Benchmarks recover some early losses; still continue to trade in red

Though, Indian benchmark equity indices have recovered from day’s low, but were still trading in red due to weak trend in the Asian markets ahead of the release of crucial US jobs data, which kept sentiment subdued. Besides, fall in crude oil prices coupled with depreciating rupee against dollar, too dampened sentiments. Indian rupee depreciated 6 paise to 67.45 against the US dollar in early trade due to increased demand for the American currency from importers amid foreign fund outflows. Markets were getting some support with Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das’ statement that the Finance Ministry is hoping that the prices of pulses will now be contained and help keep inflation under check due to the higher minimum support price for pulses. In scrip specific development, Tata Motors shares rose over 2 per cent in a subdued market as investors cheered the company's Jaguar Land Rover subsidiary June sales growth.

On the global front, the Japanese market slipped into negative territory after opening higher as investors turned cautious ahead of the release of the U.S. jobs data later in the day. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27105.70, down by 95.79 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 27034.14 and 27294.82. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was flat, while Small cap index was down by 0.28%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 0.56%, IT up by 0.37%, TECK up by 0.04%, while Capital Goods down by 1.27%, PSU down by 1.04%, Metal down by 0.85%, Oil & Gas down by 0.79% and Bankex down by 0.65% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 2.36%, Tata Motors up by 1.98%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.48%, Cipla up by 1.25% and Lupin up by 0.86%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.49%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 2.00%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.72%, ICICI Bank down by 1.62% and GAIL India down by 1.55% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Power Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the country can achieve as high as 50 percent growth in electricity production up to 1.65 trillion units next year, adding that the country has ability to double the power production given the infrastructure and generating capacity they have today. He said that now the country is making about 1.1 trillion units of electricity annually, which can go up to 1.65 next year.

Piyush Goyal termed power shortages cited by the states as 'technical' arising out of mismanagement and added that very often states don't buy and show shortage so there is a mismatch between availability of power and capacity of states to purchase and distribute to last mile connectivity.

The minister further said that Rs 1.11 lakh crore would be pumped in for technological upgradation of power infrastructure through various schemes for rural and urban India. The government was trying to ensure 24x7 power supply to each household by 2019, three years ahead of the target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of providing power to the last household by 2022. In a bid to make electricity available to all, Goyal stated that government is planning to launch a scheme where consumers can pay for the new connection in monthly installments over a period of five years and will be able to avail the service on demand.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8311.85, down by 26.05 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 8287.55 and 8353.30. There were 22 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Asian Paints up by 2.38%, Tata Motors up by 2.15%, Aurobindo Pharma up by 1.95%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.48% and Zee Entertainment up by 1.40%. On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 2.82%, BHEL down by 2.57%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.57%, Bank of Baroda down by 2.21% and Larsen & Toubro down by 1.85% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading in red, Hang Seng decreased 176.76 points or 0.85% to 20,530.16, Nikkei 225 decreased 141.88 points or 0.93% to 15,134.36, Shanghai Composite decreased 25.7 points or 0.85% to 2,991.14, KOSPI Index decreased 10.98 points or 0.56% to 1,963.10, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 5.82 points or 0.35% to 1,644.89.