Weakness persists in Indian markets in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade weak in late afternoon session, as investors braced themselves for a tepid quarterly earnings season. Investors failed to get any sense of relief with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assertion that results of the reforms undertaken by his government were visible and the country has transformed into 'one of the most open economies' in the world with a strong growth rate. Further, Global equity markets were down after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's comments on the US economy too dampened sentiment. In scrip specific development, NIIT Technologies fell after the company's standalone net profit in the September quarter fell around 30% percent, on account of fall in higher margin UK insurance business as well as higher tax rate.

On the global front, European markets were trading lower on Monday, as investors remained cautious ahead of earnings, key data and a European Central Bank (ECB) meeting later this week.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27584.94, down by 88.66 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 27517.18 and 27803.21. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.57%, while Small cap index was down by 0.16%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 0.64%, Consumer Durables up by 0.16%, FMCG up by 0.02%, while Auto down by 1.64%, Capital Goods down by 1.07%, TECK down by 0.58%, Oil & Gas down by 0.52%, Realty down by 0.50% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 6.45%, NTPC up by 1.62%, Coal India up by 0.67%, Axis Bank up by 0.61% and Tata Steel up by 0.50%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.56%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.20%, HDFC Bank down by 1.86%, Asian Paints down by 1.77% and HDFC down by 1.42% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, mines Ministry have launched the mining surveillance system (MSS), a pan-India surveillance network using latest satellite technology, to check illegal mining. MSS is a satellite-based monitoring system, which aims to check illegal mining activity through automatic remote-sensing detection technology.

The Indian Bureau of Mines, on behalf of the mines ministry, has developed MSS, in co-ordination with the Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-informatics (BISAG), Gandhinagar and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY). The system checks 500 meters around the existing mining lease boundary to search for any unusual activity relating to illegal mining, if any unusual activity takes place outside the perimeter of a mine boundary up to 500 metres, the MSS system will generate automatic triggers and same will be intimated to the IBM control room in Hyderabad and subsequently intimated to the state mining officials to verify whether the mine owner has indulged in illegal mining and if the mine owner is found excavating ore outside his territory, the state government can impose fine against him.

Mines Minister Piyush Goyal, said that the technology will ensure sustainable utilization of the country's mineral resources. The new system will cover major minerals, including coal, iron ore and bauxite at present and minerals like sand, lime stone and granite will be brought under its ambit in the coming days.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8536.65, down by 46.75 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 8518.40 and 8615.40. There were 11 stocks advancing against 40 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 6.58%, NTPC up by 1.55%, Coal India up by 0.62%, Axis Bank up by 0.61% and SBI up by 0.50%. On the flip side, Eicher Motors down by 3.03%, Idea Cellular down by 2.81%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.61%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.59% and Bosch down by 2.46% were the top losers.

Asian market were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 4.95 points or 0.24% to 2,027.61, Taiwan Weighted rose 11.05 points or 0.12% to 9,176.22, Jakarta Composite climbed 20.03 points or 0.37% to 5,419.91 and Nikkei 225 jumped 43.75 points or 0.26% to 16,900.12. On the other hand, Hang Seng decreased 195.77 points or 0.84% to 23,037.54, Shanghai Composite declined 22.64 points or 0.74% to 3,041.17 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped 4.27 points or 0.26% to 1,654.70.

European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 41.46 points or 0.59% to 6,972.09, Germany’s DAX declined 40.1 points or 0.38% to 10,540.28 and France’s CAC was down by 14.86 points or 0.33% to 4,456.06.