Weakness persists in Indian markets in late noon deals

The Sensex and Nifty continue to trade weak in late afternoon session, as investors turning pessimistic after the central bank kept its policy interest rate unchanged. Weakness in Indian rupee too dampened sentiment. The rupee was trading weak at 66.95 against the dollar, down by 16 paise from its previous close. Traders failed to get any sense of relief with the GST Bill amendments adopted by the Rajya Sabha last week getting unanimously passed by the Lok Sabha on Monday.

On global front, European stocks reversed early losses to trade higher on Tuesday but investors remained cautious amid a retreat in oil prices and U.S. markets closed lower overnight.

Back home, most of the sectoral indices were trading in negative territory with FMCG as the top losing indices down by around 1.08%. Selling was broad based with both mid cap and small cap indices were trading down by over 0.50%. In scrip specific development, Telecom operator Idea Cellular tumbled 4.3 percent on reporting a 74.3 percent year-on-year drop in June quarter consolidated net profit, while share of Apollo Tyres rises after its first quarter net profit improved 11 percent to Rs 315 crore. It made a profit of Rs 284 crore in the June quarter of last year.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28050.30, down by 132.27 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 27956.77 and 28289.96. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.58%, while Small cap index was down by 0.38%.

The lone gaining sectoral index on the BSE was PSU up by 0.06%, while FMCG down by 1.08%, Metal down by 0.78%, Auto down by 0.74%, Oil & Gas down by 0.64% and Capital Goods down by 0.39% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 1.28%, Coal India up by 1.04%, SBI up by 0.47%, Infosys up by 0.25% and Wipro up by 0.20%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 3.28%, HDFC down by 1.93%, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.37%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.27% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.15% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the country’s biggest ever spectrum auction will start on 29 September, 2016, in which the Department of Telecom (DoT) will put mobile phone airwaves worth Rs 5.63 lakh crore at the base price value for bidding. The DoT will hold a pre-bid meeting with companies on August 13, after which the final auction rules will be announced.

DoT has said that the government is giving a commitment of 30 days to assign spectrum from the day the payment is made, and has reduced the lock-in rules for diluting promoters’ equity from seven years to 1 year. It also said that large chunk of spectrum is being put for auction which address issue of fragmentation, improve quality of service and rules have been made bidder friendly.

For the forthcoming auctions, the spectrum usage charge (SUC) has been fixed at 3% or the minimum amount paid by operators during FY16 as floor. The operators will have the choice of both upfront and installments options. The service providers who win airwaves below 1 GHz bandwidth will have to pay 25% upfront, and those winning above that the upfront payment will be 50%. The remainder can be paid in equal annual instalments at a base rate of 9.3%, lower than the 10% fixed during the auctions held in 2015.

The department is putting on sale spectrum bands of 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz 1,800MHz, 2,100MHz, 2,300 MHz and 2,500 MHz. The 700 MHz band, which is the most expensive and most effective, is likely to generate less interest from telecom service providers. The total spectrum on the block also includes 197MHz of additional spectrum in the 1,800 MHz band and 37.5MHz in the 800 MHz band, released due to harmonization of spectrum in these bands.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8657.85, down by 53.50 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 8638.20 and 8728.35. There were 14 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Power up by 4.26%, Coal India up by 1.08%, ONGC up by 1.06%, Bharti Infratel up by 0.80% and Bank Of Baroda up by 0.54%. On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 5.82%, Lupin down by 4.27%, Ambuja Cement down by 2.71%, Aurobindo Pharma down by 2.14% and ACC down by 2.11% were the top losers.

Asian market were trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted increased 4.82 points or 0.05% to 9,155.08, KOSPI Index jumped 12.66 points or 0.62% to 2,043.78, Shanghai Composite surged 21.4 points or 0.71% to 3,025.68, Nikkei 225 climbed 114.4 points or 0.69% to 16,764.97.on flip side, Hang Seng decreased 29.15 points or 0.13% to 22,465.61, Jakarta Composite declined 26.31 points or 0.48% to 5,432.67, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped 1.47 points or 0.09% to 1,671.21.

European markets were trading in green, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 15.01 points or 0.22% to 6,824.14, France’s CAC increased 21.18 points or 0.48% to 4,436.64, Germany’s DAX increased 47.11 points or 0.45% to 10,479.47.