Benchmarks hover near lowest point of the day

Indian equity benchmarks continued their weak trade hovering near the lowest point of the day in the late morning session on account of profit booking amid subdued global markets. The sentiments remained pessimistic after rupee fell further against the dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on increased demand for the American currency from importers. Some cautiousness prevailed as US Trade Representative Michael Froman underlining the need to improve the business environment in India in order to ensure greater investment inflow, has said that certain areas in the Indian economy like retail and financial services needed further opening up. A private report stated that industrial production in the country is expected to remain subdued and this can act as a restrain to the overall growth momentum in the current fiscal. Weak private sector investment and fragile external sector demand are likely to pull down industrial production in the coming months. Further, business sentiment, as reflected in the Optimism Index, remained a tad cautious for the October-December 2016 quarter. Telecom counter was buzzing after Fitch Ratings expects that, credit profiles of Indian telecom operators to weaken amid intense competition and high capex requirements in 2017. The ratings agency said pricing power could be eroded as incumbents retaliate against new entrant Reliance Jio’s cheaper data tariffs and free voice and text. It, however, said that Reliance Jio is expected to gain less than a 2% revenue market share in 2017 but to act a major price-disruptor to the sector. Traders were seen piling up positions in Realty, IT and FMCG stocks, while selling was witnessed in Metal, Consumer Durables and Bankex sector stocks. In scrip specific development, HCL Technologies was trading firm after reporting better-than-estimated net profit for the July-September quarter.  The country’s fourth largest IT services company posted a net profit of Rs 2,016 crore on sales of Rs 11,519 crore.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly lower, as the dollar climbed to seven-month highs against a basket of currencies and dragged down crude oil prices, cooling investor risk appetite. China’s offshore yuan fell to its lowest level in six years against the broadly stronger dollar. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below the psychological 8,700 and 28,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 1085:1104, while 168 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27986.73, down by 143.11 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 27975.18 and 28163.41. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.16%, while Small cap index was up by 0.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.64%, IT up by 0.29%, FMCG up by 0.20% and TECK up by 0.14%, while Metal down by 1.20%, Consumer Durables down by 1.06%, Bankex down by 0.61%, PSU down by 0.38% and Auto down by 0.28% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.41%, GAIL India up by 1.38%, Lupin up by 0.48%, TCS up by 0.43% and Wipro up by 0.39%.

On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 2.39%, Reliance Industries down by 1.78%, ONGC down by 1.72%, HDFC down by 1.69% and Tata Steel down by 1.44% were the top losers.

Meanwhile in a positive news that can cheer the domestic steel makers, the government may impose anti-dumping duty on 21 flat-rolled products of non-alloy steel. Steel secretary Aruna Sharma has said that anti-dumping duty on 21 flat-rolled products of non-alloy steel such as corrugated sheets are in the offing. She further added that the notified provisional anti-dumping duty on 15 wire rod of alloy or non-alloy products would be implemented soon.

Earlier, the Steel Secretary had said that anti-dumping duty is the long-term arrangement for imports and the anti-dumping is WTO-complaint and can be levied for five years. She added that anti-dumping duty per country will be imposed based on evidence.

Following the imposition of minimum import price (MIP) on 173 steel products in the range of $341-752 per tonne for six months in February, aimed at containing imports, the government in August imposed anti-dumping duty on 107 of these products and extended MIP on the remaining 66 items twice each time for two months in August and in October.

Sharma said that there is no strong evidence of imports causing injury on 30 semi-finished products, including TMT bars and in any case, MIP is there till December 4. Once the dumping duties are imposed, the MIPs become redundant. She has also said that the government will opt for MIP in TMT and Slabs if international prices fall but at present there's no need to have antidumping duty on TMT due to higher international prices.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8660.60, down by 38.80 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 8658.80 and 8709.10. There were 16 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech up by 2.51%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.24%, GAIL India up by 1.15%, BPCL up by 1.04% and Zee Entertainment up by 0.97%.

On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 2.71%, Hindalco down by 2.29%, HDFC down by 1.78%, ONGC down by 1.71% and Reliance Industries down by 1.69% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 11.51 points or 0.07% to 17,223.99, KOSPI Index decreased 9.94 points or 0.49% to 2,030.66, Shanghai Composite decreased 8.13 points or 0.26% to 3,076.33 and Jakarta Composite decreased 7.08 points or 0.13% to 5,396.61.

On the other hand, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 2.63 points or 0.16% to 1,669.81 and Taiwan Weighted increased 14.74 points or 0.16% to 9,331.98.

Hong Kong stock exchange was closed for the trade due to issuance of Typhoon Signal.