Post Session: Quick Review

Dominating bears held the fort for the fourth consecutive session, as weakness in global equity markets combined with investors’ cautiousness ahead of decision on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill dampened sentiments. The frontline gauges got no respite during the session and snapped the day’s trade near its intraday lows, breaching their crucial 8,550 (Nifty) and 27,700 (Sensex) levels. Sentiments remained down-beat with a private report stating that consumer confidence in India declined in the second quarter this year with concerns over fuel prices and rising inflation, making the country lose the top position it occupied for the last two years as the most confident globally. Traders failed to get any sense of relief with a survey showing that the Services Purchasing Managers’ Index, or PMI, rose to 51.9 in July from 50.3 in June. The reading for July was the highest in three months.

Sentiments also got clobbered with depreciating rupee, which weakened by 24 paise to trade at 66.97 against the US dollar at the time of equity markets closing due to fresh buying of the American currency by banks and importers. Sentiment also remained dampened after the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that this year the Southwest monsoon rainfall was 11% below the Long Period Average (LPA) during June, however, July rainfall has been 7% above the LPA.

Weakness in European counters too weighed on sentiment, with FTSE and CAC were trading with a cut of around one third of a percent. Asian markets ended mostly in red, as Japanese shares led losses after the yen gained on disappointment over Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's stimulus steps.

Back home, bourses extended their losses in last leg of trade to shut shop for the fourth consecutive session in the red zone. Selling was both brutal and wide-based as none of sectoral indices, barring metal, on BSE were spared. Counters, which featured in the list of worst performers, include FMCG, Realty, Industrial, capital goods and consumer durables. Sectors like power, auto, utilities, energy and banking too ended significant losses.

Selling in banking counter weighed on sentiments after global rating agency S&P said that banks in India and China will continue to face pressures on their asset quality, profitability, and capitalization over the next 12-24 months. On the flip side, buying was witnessed in mertal counter on the report that India is expected to impose an anti-dumping duty of up to $557 per tonne on imports of certain steel products from six countries, including China, Japan and Korea.

The NSE’s 50-share broadly followed index Nifty, plunged by about eighty points to settle below the psychological 8,550 support level while Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index - Sensex nosedived by over two hundred and eighty points to finish below the psychological 27,700 mark. Moreover, the broader markets too settled on a bleak note and ended with over a percent cut.

The market breadth remained in the favour off advances, as there were 911 shares on the gaining side against 1,818 shares on the losing side while 143 shares remain unchanged. (Provisional)

The BSE Sensex ended at 27697.51, down by 284.20 points or 1.02% after trading in a range of 27647.14 and 28015.43. There were 5 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.50%, while Small cap index down by 1.14%. (Provisional)

The lone gaining sectoral index on the BSE was Metal up by 0.07%, while Realty down by 2.15%, FMCG down by 2.04%, Industrials down by 1.96%, Capital Goods down by 1.74% and Consumer Durables down by 1.73% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 2.08%, Asian Paints up by 2.04%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 1.16%, Coal India up by 0.51% and Infosys up by 0.06%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.98%, ITC down by 2.86%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.32%, Power Grid down by 1.93% and Larsen & Toubro down by 1.75% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, the government is targeting to construct 50,000 new rural roads at the rate of 133 km a day and with an investment of Rs 33,000 crore, it will also use technology to identify roads which can be developed under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has said that the pace of construction of rural roads was 100 km per day between 2014-2016 compared to an average of 73 km during 2007-14 and now the government is planning to increase the pace to 133 km/day.

The minister further said that the Centre has launched a mobile app ‘Meri Sadak’ in which a person can lodge a complaint for roads being developed under the PMGSY and it would respond to the complaint within 7 days. He said Centre gives funds to the states under the scheme which in turn transfers to respective districts and added that the Centre releases the fund without any delay as and when request for funds is received from the state.

He further said that the government has created a robust monitoring mechanism to look into the progress of rural road construction under the Yojana, he added that four states-Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat and Karnataka-have utilised the funds in the first phase of PMGSY and the Rural Development Ministry will act and money would be recovered from the states which are found lacking in implementation. PMGSY was introduced in the year 2000 by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and roads have been constructed to connect villages with roads at a fast pace, which has ushered in progress.

The CNX Nifty ended at 8544.85, down by 78.05 points or 0.91% after trading in a range of 8529.60 and 8635.45. There were 12 stocks advancing against 39 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech up by 3.17%, Cipla up by 2.23%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.12%, Asian Paints up by 1.78% and Sun Pharma up by 1.29%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 3.86%, ITC down by 3.11%, Tata Motors down by 3.02%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 2.91% and Maruti Suzuki down by 2.25% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 14.09 points or 0.21% to 6,631.31 and France’s CAC was down by 13.25 points or 0.31% to 4,314.74, while Germany’s DAX was up by 2.33 points or 0.02% to 10,146.67.

Asian equity markets ended mostly lower on Wednesday, as a slew of factors such as a firmer yen, sliding oil prices, a deepening rout in Japanese government debt and concerns about the state of Europe's banks sapped investors' appetite for risk. Japanese shares hit a three-week low as a sell-off in government bonds and the internal debate conveyed by minutes of the Bank of Japan's June 15-16 policy meeting added to speculation the central bank could scale back on quantitative easing in the coming months. Chinese shares bucked the regional downtrend to end modestly higher after a private survey showed China's private sector expanded at the fastest pace since September 2014 in July despite moderation in services activity growth. Reports showed that the Caixin composite output index rose to 51.9 from 50.3 in June, driven by a marked expansion in the manufacturing sector. The services PMI fell to 51.7 from an 11-month high of 52.7 in June.