Weakness persist on Dalal Street in late afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade weak in late afternoon session as market participants opted to remained sidelines ahead of October’s expiry in the derivatives segment on Thursday. Sentiments remained weak in the absence of any positive trigger. Market participants failed to get any sense of relief with the statement of Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das that the revenue neutral rate structure will be decided the next month. On the sectoral front, banking stocks were trading marginally higher after the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stated that in a move to help state-run banks clean up books, the government will encourage them to acquire assets of loan defaulters in steel, power and shipping sectors, and rope in state-run companies to manage them.

On the global front, European trading in green on Tuesday, ahead of economic data this week that is likely to influence policy of the world's main central banks. Further, higher metal prices, positive overnight cues from Wall Street and some well-received earnings updates from the likes of Randstad and Orange supporting underlying sentiment.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28081.30, down by 97.78 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 28013.69 and 28211.41. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.30%, while Small cap index was up by 0.04%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE was Bankex up by 0.12%, while Realty down by 0.65%, IT down by 0.62%, Consumer Durables down by 0.62%, Auto down by 0.60%, Capital Goods down by 0.57% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.96%, Axis Bank up by 1.15%, Power Grid up by 1.14%, ICICI Bank up by 1.04% and Maruti Suzuki up by 0.79%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.63%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.41%, GAIL India down by 2.04%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.03% and Tata Motors down by 1.14% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government is likely to impose anti-dumping duty on imports of certain flat steel products from countries including China and European Union, in a move to protect the domestic industry from cheap in-bound shipments.

The directorate general of antidumping and allied duties (DGAD) in its preliminary findings has recommended duty on imports of “colour coated / pre-painted flat products of alloy or non-alloy steel”. These steel products offers resistance to corrosion with barrier protection and it is used in many applications and sectors including construction, roofing, walling, paneling, cladding and decking, automotive, white goods, appliances and furniture.

The investigation was initiated on joint application for initiation of anti-dumping investigations by Essar Steel India and JSW Steel Coated Products. DGAD in its findings has also suggested that the duty should be the difference between the landed value of steel products and $849 per tonne. In its findings, DGAD has concluded that the product has been exported to India at below the normal value due to which the domestic industry has suffered material injury.

Imports of these steel products have drastically increased to 213,311 tonnes during the period of investigation (July- December 2015) from 60,771 tonnes in 2012-13. Government has already slapped anti-dumping duty on certain cold-rolled flat steel products from four nations, including China and South Korea.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8686.80, down by 22.15 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 8663.45 and 8722.65. There were 21 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 2.62%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.00%, Power Grid up by 1.25%, ICICI Bank up by 1.11% and Axis Bank up by 1.09%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.76%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.41%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.16%, GAIL India down by 2.14% and Idea Cellular down by 2.08% were the top losers.

Asian market were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 38.97 points or 0.17% to 23,565.11, Jakarta Composite declined 17.79 points or 0.33% to 5,403.20, KOSPI Index dropped 10.57 points or 0.52% to 2,037.17 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 1.16 points or 0.07% to 1,676.60. On the other hand, Shanghai Composite increased 3.69 points or 0.12% to 3,131.94, Taiwan Weighted climbed 63.15 points or 0.68% to 9,385.65 and Nikkei 225 surged 130.83 points or 0.76% to 17,365.25.

European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC increased 14.51 points or 0.32% to 4,567.09, UK’s FTSE 100 rose 41.39 points or 0.59% to 7,027.79 and Germany’s DAX jumped 55.02 points or 0.51% to 10,816.19.