Benchmarks trim losses to trade flat in late afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks trimmed their losses and turned flat in late afternoon session on Monday, on account of buying in selected blue chip counters. Sentiments got some support with the Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das expressing his hopes that India will clock a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of nearly 8 per cent this fiscal on the back of good monsoon rain. Investors also got support with the report of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that India's foreign exchange reserves went up to $367.16 billion as on August 19. In scrip specific development, Claris Lifesciences slumped over 7 per cent after the company received five Form 483s on its Vasna, Gujarat, manufacturing facility from the US drug regulator. Bharti Airtel were trading down after company has slashed 4G and 3G mobile internet charges by up to 80 per cent to as low as Rs 51 per gigabyte (GB) under a special scheme.

On global front, European shares were down in opening deals on Monday with rising expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates later this year punching the air out of the recent rally.  Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading above the psychological 8,600 and 27,900 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1190: 1397, while 159 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27805.06, up by 22.81 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 27698.71 and 27827.26. 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 0.14%, while Small cap index was up by 0.07%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 1.23%, Capital Goods up by 1.05%, Metal up by 0.61%, Consumer Durables up by 0.45% and Oil & Gas up by 0.30%, while IT down by 1.06%, Realty down by 0.91%, TECK down by 0.85%, FMCG down by 0.40% and Bankex down by 0.34% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 4.34%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.83%, Reliance Industries up by 1.63%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.57% and Adani Ports &Special up by 1.03%. On the flip side, Lupin down by 2.12%, Wipro down by 1.96%, TCS down by 1.57%, HDFC Bank down by 1.42% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.41% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, coal imports during the month of July decreased by 11.14% to 18.03 million tonnes (MT), as against 20.29 MT during the same month last year due to higher domestic availability of fossil fuel. According to mjunction services, an online procurement and sales platform jointly floated by SAIL and Tata Steel, of the total coal imported, non-coking coal was highest at 12.39 MT, followed by coking coal at 3.76 MT, pet coke at 1.05 MT, among others.

CEO and MD of mjunction services Viresh Oberoi has said that the decline in July imports this year against last year can be attributed to number of factors, including monsoon, when imports generally come down. Firmness in international coal prices since beginning of June and higher availability of domestic coal also impacted imports. Further he said that with many imported coal-based load power plants operating at lower utilisation, the overall volume of imports is likely to remain flat.

The government had earlier said that coal imports will further come down in the ongoing fiscal on account of increased domestic output. Imports in May declined by 19.2 per cent to 16.38 MT and in April fell by 15 per cent to 15.9 MT. Further, Coal India (CIL), which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic output, has set the output target at 598 MT for current financial year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8577.00, up by 4.45 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 8543.75 and 8583.75. There were 21 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 4.36%, Zee Entertainment up by 3.67%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.43%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.04% and Larsen & Toubro up by 1.95%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 3.03%, Lupin down by 2.24%, Bharti Infratel down by 2.22%, Wipro down by 2.03% and Tech Mahindra down by 1.90% were the top losers.

Asian market were trading in red; Hang Seng decreased 88.2 points or 0.38% to 22,821.34, Jakarta Composite declined 82.67 points or 1.52% to 5,356.16, Taiwan Weighted dropped 21.55 points or 0.24% to 9,110.17, KOSPI Index was down by 5.15 points or 0.25% to 2,032.35, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI felled 3.8 points or 0.23% to 1,679.29 and Shanghai Composite decreased 0.28 points or 0.01% to 3,070.03. On other hand, Nikkei 225 increased 376.78 points or 2.3% to 16,737.49.

European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 99.38 points or 0.94% to 10,488.39 and France’s CAC decreased 43.86 points or 0.99% to 4,398.01. On other hand, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 21.15 points or 0.31% to 6,838.05.