Weak trade prevails; Nifty below 8,750 mark

Indian equity markets continued the weak trade in the afternoon session on account of selling in front line blue chip counters. The mood on the street remained cautious as investors’ awaited U.S. employment data later in the day and the RBI's monetary policy review next week. Traders also remained concerned with report that India's services languished, with new business orders falling for the third straight month, amid muted inflationary pressure. Further, losses in the Consumer Durables, Auto, FMCG, IT and Metal stocks too dampened the mood. However, downside was capped as some support came with the American industry bodies lauding the Budget, saying Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has done an 'admirable job' in creating a vision that will propel the domestic economy while remaining cognizant about foreign investors eying the Indian market.  In scrip specific development, Subros was up by around three percent on receiving another major order of 306 Kits from Indian Railways - Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW), Varanasi for which supplies are to be executed.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, following the lackluster cues from Wall Street and on caution ahead of the release of the monthly U.S. jobs data later in the day. Investors also remained wary about the Trump administration's aggressive foreign policy measures.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28179.48, down by 47.13 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 28127.18 and 28280.58. There were 13 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.79%, while Small cap index was up by 0.86%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 0.71%, Oil & Gas up by 0.29%, Bankex up by 0.27%, Realty up by 0.22% and TECK up by 0.19%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.96%, Auto down by 0.58%, FMCG down by 0.36%, IT down by 0.19% and Metal down by 0.08% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 3.51%, Adani Ports &SEZ up by 1.09%, Axis Bank up by 1.05%, SBI up by 1.01% and Coal India up by 0.97%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.89%, Infosys down by 0.99%, Tata Motors down by 0.95%, ITC down by 0.84% and Power Grid down by 0.79% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Indian Policy Think Tank, NITI Aayog together with Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has launched India Innovation Index, the nation's first online innovation index portal which will rank and measure innovation performance of all Indian states. It will also encourage states to drive the innovative spirit.

India innovation index will be a one-stop data warehouse and will track progress on each indicator at the National level and the State level on real-time basis, which will consider periodically updated Global Innovation Index indicators and other India-centric data from various states to determine the ranking.

Data collated on this portal will not only be used to ameliorate current data gaps with respect to the GII, but be the prime source for the India Innovation Index. Niti Aayog has said that this will track progress on each indicator at the National level and the State level on real-time basis. The access to the portal will be hosted on the NITI Aayog website. This initiative would enable the international agencies to collect India’s up to date data points for ranking global indices.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8719.40, down by 14.85 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 8707.75 and 8748.25. There were 23 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bank of Baroda up by 3.52%, Cipla up by 3.41%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.48%, Indusind Bank up by 1.61% and Tech Mahindra up by 1.47%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 2.06%, ICICI Bank down by 1.98%, Eicher Motors down by 1.52%, Bosch down by 1.51% and ACC down by 1.41% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mixed, KOSPI Index increased 2.15 points or 0.1% to 2,073.16, Nikkei 225 rose 3.62 points or 0.02% to 18,918.20 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 6.3 points or 0.38% to 1,679.78. On the flip side, Hang Seng decreased 81 points or 0.35% to 23,103.52 and Shanghai Composite was down by 16.2 points or 0.51% to 3,142.97.