Indian bourses continue to trade in negative terrain; FMCG drag

Indian bourses continued their trade in negative terrain in the afternoon session, tracking weak global cues. At present, both Sensex and Nifty were trading below the crucial 26,500 and 8,150 levels, respectively. Sentiment was muted ahead of the release of the U.S. monthly jobs data, a referendum in Italy over its constitution, and the Reserve Bank of India's policy review next week. Further, the losses in FMCG, Realty, banking and Consumer Durables stocks also aided to pessimistic milieu. Meanwhile, investors will be eyeing the GST Council meet starting today, which was called off last time due to differences between states and demonetization. The 2-Day GST Council meeting will finalise the three draft legislations for Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST), Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) and compensation law. In scrip specific development, Wipro edged down marginally despite winning a three-year IT infrastructure services and digital transformation contract from an Australian firm.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red and oil prices retreated along with the US dollar as investors took a step back from a recent rally, while caution set in ahead of a crunch referendum in Italy at the weekend.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26296.22, down by 263.70 points or 0.99% after trading in a range of 26289.65 and 26445.52. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.86%, while Small cap index was down by 0.89%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG down by 1.59%, Realty down by 1.53%, Bankex down by 1.18%, Consumer Durables down by 1.16% and Oil & Gas down by 0.98%, while there were no gainers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 0.82%, GAIL India up by 0.63%, ONGC up by 0.58%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 0.31% and Reliance Industries up by 0.30%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.70%, HDFC down by 2.29%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.94%, ITC down by 1.93% and Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.91% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, as per the Niti Aayog’s annual assessment, the country will require 884.87 million tonnes (mt) of coal for the current fiscal ending March 2017. Coal Minister Piyush Goyal has said that demand of coal is not estimated separately for state and Union Territories. He also said that the total coal produced in the country during 2015-16 was to the tune of 639.23 mt. 

The minister highlighted that to increase domestic production of coal, the government has taken the various steps include efforts to expedite Environment Clearances and Forest Clearances, pursuing with the state government for assistance in land acquisition and coordinated effort with the Railways for movement of coal. He added that to increase production of coal by 2019-20, Coal India (CIL) has prepared a road map which include capacity addition from new projects, use of mass production technologies and identification of existing ongoing projects with growth potential.

Goyal also said that under provisions of the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015, 83 coal mines (31 by way of auction and 52 by allotment) have been allocated so far. Out of these, 30 coal mines for utilization in specified end-uses- power (regulated sector) and iron and steel, cement, captive power production (non-regulated sector) have been allotted to private sector entities who participated in the three tranches of e-auction of these coal mines. He noted that an amount of Rs 444.67 crore has been invested by the successful bidders of private sector entities towards payment of cost of land and mine infrastructure

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8109.35, down by 83.55 points or 1.02% after trading in a range of 8105.45 and 8154.15. There were 14 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Eicher Motors up by 3.01%, Tata Power up by 1.51%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.04%, Coal India up by 0.91% and ONGC up by 0.62%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 3.47%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.99%, Tata Motors down by 2.78%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.28% and HDFC down by 2.19% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 256.37 points or 1.12% to 22,621.86, Nikkei 225 declined 87.04 points or 0.47% to 18,426.08, Taiwan Weighted shed 74.04 points or 0.8% to 9,189.49, Shanghai Composite decreased 25.84 points or 0.79% to 3,247.47 and KOSPI Index was down by 13.14 points or 0.66% to 1,970.61.On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 1.96 points or 0.12% to 1,628.40 and Jakarta Composite gained 9.05 points or 0.17% to 5,207.81.