Markets continue to trade in negative territory

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in red in early noon session on account of selling in front line blue chip counters. Also the August derivatives series began on a negative note amid a weak trend in the global market. However, losses remained capped with efforts to hammer out a consensus on the Goods and Services Tax bill gathering momentum. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanyam held several rounds of talks with leaders from opposition parties. Congress the main opposition described the exercise as 'constructive and positive' and the bill is likely to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha next week. India Meteorological Department (IMD), ahead of its second stage monsoon forecast has predicted that with reduced chances of La Nina weather event, the monsoon rainfall this year is likely to be normal and not 'above normal', even though monsoon rains in India were 4 percent below average in the last one week. In scrip specific development, Ajanta Pharma touched 52-week high, rose 3 percent on the back of US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) approval for oral suspension drug.
On the global front, Asian market were trading lower ahead of Bank of Japan's policy announcement. The BOJ is widely expected to expand its stimulus further by increasing its already massive asset purchases and cutting interest rates deeper into negative levels.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28165.45, down by 43.17 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 28076.48 and 28233.47. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.00%, while Small cap index was up by 0.56%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.15%, Auto up by 1.05%, Realty up by 0.63%, Metal up by 0.57% and PSU up by 0.51%, while Capital Goods down by 0.51%, Consumer Durables down by 0.46%, Bankex down by 0.36%, TECK down by 0.14% and IT down by 0.01% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 2.52%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.10%, Adani Ports &Special up by 1.98%, Tata Steel up by 1.81% and Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.61%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 2.76%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.99%, HDFC down by 1.45%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.07% and NTPC down by 0.91% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD), ahead of its second stage monsoon forecast has predicted that with reduced chances of La Nina weather event, the monsoon rainfall this year is likely to be normal and not 'above normal', even though monsoon rains in India were 4 percent below average in the last one week.  IMD in its second stage forecast issued in June had forecast the average rainfall to be 106% of the normal monsoon rainfall of 89 mm (with +/-4% model error). The July climate outlook issued by IMD's Regional Climate Centre for south Asia expects July, August, September rainfall over India to be more than 100% of the normal rainfall but not above normal 104% to 110%, as forecasted by the IMD.

The experimental Climate Forecast System (CFS) model of Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) too indicated slight reduction in rainfall during August, September based on the initial conditions of June as compared to its forecast based on initial conditions of May. The Australian weather office has also said that the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) has strengthened in recent weeks and there are only 50% chances of La Nina. A negative IOD can decrease rainfall over India while La Nina event normally helps rainfall over the Indian sub-continent.

However, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), August and September rainfall are still expected to be 'reasonably okay'. 'It will help fill up reservoirs by September end. Meanwhile, CRISIL in its latest report stated that there is still risk of excess rains and a good spread of rains over time and region in August can help increase GDP growth rate to 7.9% in FY 17. It also expects agriculture to grow by 4 per cent and consumer price inflation to be restricted to 5 per cent in 2016-2017.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8665.00, down by 1.30 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 8636.20 and 8670.35. There were 34 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index, while one stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Eicher Motors up by 3.22%, Cipla up by 2.37%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.12%, Adani Ports &Special up by 1.86% and Tata Steel up by 1.80%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 2.78%, BHEL down by 2.28%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.02%, HDFC down by 1.57% and Larsen & Toubro down by 1.16% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red, Hang Seng decreased 163.35 points or 0.74% to 22,010.99, Taiwan Weighted decreased 92.23 points or 1.02% to 8,984.41, Shanghai Composite decreased 7.01 points or 0.23% to 2,987.31, Nikkei 225 decreased 6.88 points or 0.04% to 16,469.96, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 2.32 points or 0.14% to 1,656.18 and KOSPI Index decreased 1.4 points or 0.07% to 2,019.70. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite increased 23.57 points or 0.44% to 5,322.79.