Markets continue to trade red in early noon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in red in early noon session, on account of sustained selling by funds and retail investors in the blue chip counters despite positive global cues. Sentiments were getting some comfort with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) report that the June-September monsoon has so far delivered 4 percent higher rainfall than average. The monsoon rains covered the entire country, cheering farmers planting crops such as rice, soybeans, cotton and pulses in the summer sowing season that starts in June. Some support also came with hopes for smooth passage of much-awaited GST bill in the coming monsoon session of the parliament, after Congress leadership accepted the NDA government's invitation for further negotiations and discussion on alternative proposals on capping of the rate. In scrip specific development, DCB Bank shares slid over 6 per cent intraday after the private lender reported a marginal rise of 0.34 per cent in net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2016.

On the global front, Asian shares rose as better-than-expected economic data from China lifted risk sentiment that was already buoyant after Wall Street struck another record high overnight.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27800.21, down by 141.90 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 27742.26 and 28048.70. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.43%, while Small cap index was down by 0.29%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.32%, Auto up by 1.31%, Metal up by 0.60%, FMCG up by 0.49% and Realty up by 0.19%, while IT down by 5.15%, TECK down by 4.04%, Power down by 0.71%, PSU down by 0.35% and Bankex down by 0.04% were the losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Adani Ports &Special up by 2.70%, Tata Motors up by 2.25%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.22%, Tata Steel up by 2.16% and Hindustan Unilever up by 1.57%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 9.16%, TCS down by 2.86%, NTPC down by 2.15%, Wipro down by 1.25% and ICICI Bank down by 0.89% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, giving a big push to infra, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) may award 97 projects covering 6,631 km and worth Rs one lakh crore during the current financial year. The NHAI chairman Raghav Chandra has said that the around 97 projects with total length of 6,631 km, are likely to be awarded during the current financial year 2016-17.

Chandra said that more than 30,000 km of road projects are in the pipeline. NHAI has around 250 projects across the country and is expected to spend about $15-16 billion during 2016-17. The highway sector is poised for rapid growth as new opportunities unfold for construction of highways. The focus of NHAI is on development with a changed approach from output-based thinking to outcome-based thinking where PPP projects will be not only for construction component but for service aspect in highways development.

The projects include Vadodara -Mumbai 6/8 lane Expressway (Phase I ), Surat-Mumbai with a spur to Mumbai-Pune expressway and JNPT in Phase II, Delhi-Jaipur expressway, 6-8 lane semi-elevated Delhi-Meerut expressway, Somnath-Porbander-Dwarka section of NH-8E, Bihar/Jharkhand border-Barwa, Hospet-Bellary NH-63, Tamil Nadu Karnataka Border Bengaluru section of NH-209, Solapur-Bijapur section of NH-13, Salasar-Nagpur section of NH-65, Vikravandi-Thanjavur section of NH-45C, and four laning of Nagpur-Wardha-Nanded-Solapur-Ratnagiri section of NH-36.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8527.60, down by 37.40 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 8512.75 and 8594.80. There were 32 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports &Special up by 2.65%, Tata Motors up by 2.23%, Tata Steel up by 2.14%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.07% and Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.75%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 9.30%, TCS down by 2.99%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.60%, NTPC down by 2.33% and Wipro down by 1.22% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green, KOSPI Index increased 7.96 points or 0.4% to 2,016.73, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 9.31 points or 0.56% to 1,664.09, Hang Seng increased 20.18 points or 0.09% to 21,581.24, Jakarta Composite increased 26.28 points or 0.52% to 5,109.82, Taiwan Weighted increased 83.49 points or 0.94% to 8,949.85 and Nikkei 225 increased 107.03 points or 0.65% to 16,492.92. On the other hand, Shanghai Composite decreased 6.06 points or 0.2% to 3,047.96.