Benchmarks make gap down opening; Nifty breaches 8,400 mark

Indian equity benchmarks have made a gap-down opening and are witnessing blood-bath in early deals on Friday, breaching their crucial 27,200 (Sensex) and 8,400 (Nifty) levels, as the initial euphoria post Donald Trump's victory in the US elections faded. Traders failed to get any sense of relief with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) supporting India's efforts to fight corruption through the currency control measures announced this week, but it has stressed taking care to minimise disruptions in the economy. Investors also shrugged off Finance minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the government will continue tax reforms, even as he criticised global agencies for not fully appreciating the efforts made by the government. He also said that the government will meet its target of reining in fiscal deficit at 3.5% of GDP.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in red at this point of time as traders remained cautious amid speculation that the Federal Reserve will boost interest rates to cap inflation as a Donald Trump-led administration steps up spending. The US markets made a mixed closing in last session with financial stocks moving higher amid optimism about reduced regulation under Trump.

Back home, selling was both brutal and wide-based as none of sectoral indices on BSE were spared. Counters, which featured in the list of worst performers, include realty, consumer durables and telecom.

The broader indices too were reeling under pressure, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 365 shares on the gaining side against 1,614 shares on the losing side, while 77 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27126.79, down by 390.89 points or 1.42% after trading in a range of 27105.15 and 27344.85. There were 2 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index tumbled 2.51%, while Small cap index was down by 1.84%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 4.51%, Consumer Durables down by 4.33%, Telecom down by 3.06%, Auto down by 2.40% and Basic Materials down by 2.37%, while there were no gainers on the BSE sectoral front.

The only gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 5.17% and SBI up by 0.46%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 3.46%, Tata Motors down by 3.44%, HDFC down by 3.20%, Hero MotoCorp down by 3.10% and GAIL India down by 2.96% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das has said that in few months, government will re-introduce Rs 1000 banknotes in the market with new features and also issue new series of lower denomination notes with enhanced security features. Recently, the government had scraped the Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes from the circulation to curb corruption. These are being replaced with new currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2000.

Das said that the currency notes of lower denomination of Rs 100 and Rs 50 will continue to be the legal tender. Further, the banks have started distributing new notes of Rs 500 and Rs 2000. The new Rs 500 banknotes have extra security features and it will be stone grey in color with a predominant new theme of the Indian heritage site Red Fort.

On other hand, the Rs 2000 notes, which are being introduced for the first time, will be of magenta colour with Mangalayan imprinted on the reverse side, depicting the country's first venture in interplanetary space. The higher value currency notes will have other designs, geometric patterns aligning with the overall colour scheme both on the obverse and reverse.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8389.75, down by 136.00 points or 1.60% after trading in a range of 8389.35 and 8460.60. There were 4 stocks advancing against 47 stocks declining on the index.

The few gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 5.45%, SBI up by 0.89%, Bank of Baroda up by 0.88% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.27%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 4.95%, HCL Tech down by 4.24%, Ambuja Cement down by 3.96%, Ultratech Cement down by 3.78% and ACC down by 3.72% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 239.67 points or 1.05% to 22,599.44, Jakarta Composite declined 161.74 points or 2.97% to 5,288.57, Taiwan Weighted dropped 159.01 points or 1.74% to 8,993.17, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI shed 16.46 points or 1% to 1,636.28 and KOSPI Index was down by 12.44 points or 0.62% to 1,990.16.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite increased 19.22 points or 0.61% to 3,190.51 and Nikkei 225 was up by 35.91 points or 0.21% to 17,380.33.