Benchmarks turn into red in late afternoon session

Erasing all their early gains, Indian equity benchmarks turned red in late afternoon session on back of selling in IT, Power and select FMCG stocks. Investors turned wary after US Federal Reserve indicating raising interest rates as early as September. Sentiment also remained down beat with the discouraging macro-economic data as wholesale inflation soared to a 23-month high of 3.55% in July. Weak global cues also dampened the domestic sentiment. European markets were trading lower on Wednesday with Austrian brickmaker Wienerberger, brewer Carlsberg and UK insurer Admiral sliding after publishing results. Back home, in scrip specific development, delta Magnets shares jumped over 4 per cent after it announced that the company’s wholly owned foreign subsidiary MagDev, UK, has acquired 100 per cent stake of Pilamec, UK, which offer a wide range of chemicals, metals and ceramic products.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28006.94, down by 57.67 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 27960.14 and 28174.30. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.43%, while Small cap index was up by 0.53%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.62%, PSU up by 0.63%, Auto up by 0.60%, Realty up by 0.23% and Bankex up by 0.06%, while IT down by 1.29%, TECK down by 1.01%, Power down by 0.38%, Oil & Gas down by 0.31% and FMCG down by 0.22% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 2.66%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.53%, Tata Steel up by 2.48%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.54% and Axis Bank up by 0.99%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.99%, Asian Paints down by 1.47%, Infosys down by 1.37%, Power Grid Corpn. down by 1.15% and Adani Ports &Special down by 1.12% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to promote out-bound shipments and manufactured products from export-oriented units (EoUs), software technology parks of India (STPIs) and electronic hardware technology parks (EHTPs), government has relaxed certain norms like doing away with mandatory warehousing requirement for EoUs and software and electronic hardware technology parks.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has also eased rules for the existing EHTP and STP units to avail tax exemptions in the case of conversion or merger of EoU and vice versa and added this in a notification, amending the foreign trade policy 2015-20. DGFT said an EoU which is into agriculture, aquaculture, horticulture and poultry may be permitted to remove specified goods in connection with its activities for use “outside the premises of the unit”, earlier, it was allowed only for outside the bonded area.

The EoU scheme, which was introduced in December 1980, had allowed manufacturing units in export processing zones to enjoy 100 per cent tax exemption on profits from overseas sale and duty-free import of raw material. The STPI scheme is a 100 percent export oriented scheme for the development and export of computer software, including export of professional services using communication links or physical media.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8616.70, down by 25.85 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 8603.60 and 8667.10. There were 20 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 2.74%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.60%, Tata Steel up by 2.47%, Aurobindo Pharma up by 2.20% and Grasim Industries up by 1.49%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.99%, Idea Cellular down by 1.58%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.55%, Infosys down by 1.49% and BPCL down by 1.48% were the top losers.

Asian market were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 111.06 points or 0.48% to 22,799.78, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 5.39 points or 0.32% to 1,694.50, KOSPI Index decreased 4.01 points or 0.2% to 2,043.75, Shanghai Composite decreased 0.48 points or 0.02% to 3,109.56.On other hand, Taiwan Weighted increased 7.34 points or 0.08% to 9,117.70, Jakarta Composite increased 51.29 points or 0.96% to 5,371.85, Nikkei 225 increased 149.13 points or 0.9% to 16,745.64.

European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 82.91 points or 0.78% to 10,593.74, France’s CAC decreased 29.83 points or 0.67% to 4,430.61, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 10.27 points or 0.15% to 6,883.65.