Benchmarks continue weak trade in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks continued their weak trade in the late morning session with market extending their losing streak to fifth straight session, as prospects of an interest rate hike by US Federal Reserve increased. The demonetisation effect also continues to weigh on the bourses with both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha witnessing continued protests from the opposition about the demonetisation move. After the governments’ surprise decision to withdraw high-denomination bank notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 from market, the currency in circulation reduced by 50 basis points in the week ended November 11, 2016. As per RBI data, the currency in circulation during the week under review declined by Rs 9,700 crore to Rs 17,87,700 crore, compared to the previous week. The Indian rupee opened lower against the US dollar on account of buying of the American currency by banks and importers. It is the lowest level for the domestic currency since June 24. Foreign Institutional Investors offloaded shares worth a net of Rs 1,960 crore on Thursday, according to the data available with NSDL. Gross purchases by FIIs stood at Rs 7,361.02 crore, while gross sales stood at Rs 9,321.27 crore. Investors failed to draw solace with NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya’s statement who has expressed his confidence that the size of the Indian economy can grow to $10 trillion over the next 15 years, as China did in last one and a half decade. Traders were seen piling up positions in Oil & Gas, Power and PSU stocks, while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables, Metal and FMCG sector stocks. In the scrip specific development, Engineers India was trading in green on recommending bonus. The company has recommended the issue of bonus shares in the proportion of 1 equity share for every 1 existing equity shares of Rs 5 each fully paid up of the company, subject to the approval of shareholders.

On the global front, Asian shares were trading mostly in red, a weaker yen sent Japan’s Nikkei to a 10-month high, as robust US economic data buoyed expectations of an interest-rate hike next month. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below the psychological 8,100 and 26,300 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 954:1138, while 107 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26205.30, down by 22.32 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 26117.82 and 26272.84. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.39%, while Small cap index was down by 0.25%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.20%, Power up by 1.08%, PSU up by 0.79%, Auto up by 0.30% and Capital Goods up by 0.06%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.53%, Metal down by 1.26%, FMCG down by 0.65%, TECK down by 0.36% and Bankex down by 0.29% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 3.63%, Sun Pharma up by 2.39%, ONGC up by 1.43%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.34% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.20%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.60%, GAIL India down by 1.59%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.43%, TCS down by 1.34% and Tata Steel down by 1.18% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, giving further boost to the infra sector the government has given the approval for 12 National highway projects worth Rs 6067.9 crore totalling 476.386 km in eight states, including Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

For expanding National highways, most of the over 476-km projects are under engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode. Out of the 12 projects which were cleared by the Standing Finance Committee(SFC), nine projects are in EPC mode, two in hybrid annuity and the remaining one in OMT (operate-maintain- transfer) mode. SFC has approved reconstruction with geometric improvement of two lane to two lane with paved shoulder of a sections of NH-125 in Uttarakhand.

A total of four projects pertain to Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh for augmenting of existing highway stretches on NH 39 and NH-415. The three projects for Maharashtra pertain to two and four-laning of highway stretches on NH-930, NH-211 (New NH-52) and NH-211 (New NH-52). The West Bengal project pertains to four-laning of Kolaghat to Haldia section of NH-41 with ROB cum Flyover, while rehabilitation and upgrade of Barhani-Kataya Chowk near Shohratgarh section of NH-730. The Goa project is for construction of Margaon Western NH Bypass for NH 17 (New NH-66).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8075.25, down by 4.70 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 8048.30 and 8104.65. There were 26 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 3.59%, Sun Pharma up by 2.65%, Aurobindo Pharma up by 1.75%, Eicher Motors up by 1.60% and ONGC up by 1.48%.

On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 2.49%, Hindalco down by 2.02%, Grasim Industries down by 1.68%, Tata Motors down by 1.68% and GAIL India down by 1.60% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Jakarta Composite decreased 37.92 points or 0.73% to 5,155.09, Shanghai Composite decreased 8.15 points or 0.25% to 3,200.30, KOSPI Index decreased 6.17 points or 0.31% to 1,974.38 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 5.97 points or 0.37% to 1,620.80.

On the other hand, Taiwan Weighted increased 5.24 points or 0.06% to 9,000.50, Hang Seng increased 26.18 points or 0.12% to 22,289.06 and Nikkei 225 increased 153.88 points or 0.86% to 18,016.51.