Indian bourses continue to trade in negative territory

Indian bourses continued to trade in negative territory in afternoon session on account of heavy selling in Realty, IT, Tech, FMCG and Auto stocks. Further weak trend in the Asian region and depreciation in rupee value also weighed on the sentiments. Investors remained cautious ahead of the outcomes of the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan's policy meetings that begin later in the session.  However, losses remained capped as sentiments got some support with the Finance Ministry setting at rest confusion over levy of excise duty and stating that there is no 'legal infirmity' in the notifications issued by the government with regard to the GST Constitution Amendment Act. Meanwhile, the country's long-period monsoon rainfall for the June to September period is heading for a 'normal' performance. In April this year, IMD, the country's state-run weather forecasting agency had said that the country is likely to receive above-normal rainfall, but with just ten days before monsoon comes to a close, the countrywide monsoon deficit stood at 5 per cent.  In scrip specific development, Aurobindo Pharma rose 1 percent after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration completed inspection at its Andhra Pradesh plant. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red as investors turned cautious ahead of monetary policy decisions by the US Federal Reserve as well as the Bank of Japan on Wednesday. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28534.25, down by 100.25 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 28514.84 and 28698.81. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.14%, while Small cap index was down by 0.06%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.74%, Oil & Gas up by 0.64% and PSU up by 0.31%, while Realty down by 1.42%, IT down by 0.60%, TECK down by 0.59%, FMCG down by 0.53% and Auto down by 0.50% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.09%, Tata Steel up by 1.45%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.79%, Cipla up by 0.72% and Power Grid Corpn. up by 0.65%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.96%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.43%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.29%, Infosys down by 1.05% and Adani Ports &Special down by 0.94% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India's total external debt rose marginally by 2.2 percent to $485 billion at the end of March 2016, compared to that of $475 billion as of March 31, 2015, largely driven by private commercial borrowings and non-resident Indian (NRI) deposits, finance ministry said in its external debt report.

As per the 22nd issue of the Annual Publication titled India's External Debt: A Status Report 2015-16 of the Finance Ministry and prepared by the Department of Economic Affairs, long-term external debt, which accounted for 82.8% of total external debt in March, was at $ 402.2 billion, showing an increase of 3.3% over the year-ago period, due to the rise in long-term debt, particularly NRI deposits. On the other hand the Short-term external debt decreased by 2.5% to $83.4 billion at March-end 2016 as compared to $ 84.7 billion at March-end 2015. This was mainly due to the decline in trade-related credits. Share of commercial borrowings at end of March 2016 declined to 17.2% of total external debt, from 18 % a year ago.

The report said that forex reserves covered 74.2% of the external debt at the end of March 2016, higher than 68.2% at the end of March 2014, showing an improvement in this debt sustainability measure. Concessional debt was pegged at 9% of the total debt, up from 8.8% at the end of the year before. It added that India's external debt has remained within manageable limits in 2015-16 as indicated by increase in foreign exchange reserves to debt ratio to 74.2 percent, the external debt-GDP ratio of 23.7 percent, and a fall in short-term debt to 17.2 percent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8780.70, down by 27.70 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 8767.45 and 8816.45. There were 22 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 2.07%, Tata Steel up by 1.51%, Hindalco up by 1.08%, Ultratech Cement up by 0.74% and Grasim Industries up by 0.71%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.21%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.59%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.42%, Infosys down by 1.11% and Indusind Bank down by 1.09% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red, Hang Seng declined 46.3 points or 0.2% to 23,504.15, Nikkei 225 decreased 27.14 points or 0.16% to 16,492.15, Jakarta Composite was down by 15.24 points or 0.29% to 5,306.60, Shanghai Composite decreased 5.89 points or 0.19% to 3,020.16 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 3.24 points or 0.2% to 1,648.47.Taiwan Weighted increased 8.7 points or 0.1% to 9,161.58 and KOSPI Index was up by 9.93 points or 0.49% to 2,025.71.