Indian bourses continue to trade in negative terrain; Metal drag

Indian bourses continued their weak trade in the afternoon session on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters taking cues from regional counterparts. Traders were taking cautious bet ahead of exit poll results for Assembly elections due to be unveiled later in the day. Domestic sentiment was also hit as concerns grew over a Fed rate hike at its policy meeting next week. Adding the pessimism among investors, Capital Economics, an independent macroeconomic research house, in its latest report stated that Consumer price inflation is likely to rise in February for the first time since demonetization and this could prompt the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to hike rates much sooner than most expect. Besides, depreciation in rupee value against the dollar, too affected the market sentiment. In scrip specific development, Tata Motors was trading in green after signing MoU with Volkswagen Group to explore a possible joint technical collaboration or joint venture on vehicle architecture, engines and component sourcing.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, following the lackluster cues overnight from Wall Street and lower commodity prices, including a more than 5 percent fall in crude oil prices. Investors also remained cautious ahead of the release of the crucial U.S. jobs data on Friday and next week's Federal Reserve meeting.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28857.70, down by 44.24 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 28815.02 and 28928.85. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.06%, while Small cap index was up by 0.22%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.69%, Auto up by 0.44%, Consumer Disc up by 0.42%, Realty up by 0.38% and Bankex up by 0.01%, while Metal down by 0.67%, Telecom down by 0.65%, Oil & Gas down by 0.61%, Utilities down by 0.55% and Energy down by 0.54% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 1.39%, Asian Paints up by 1.17%, Axis Bank up by 1.13%, SBI up by 0.57% and Tata Motors up by 0.51%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 4.33%, GAIL India down by 1.74%, Adani Ports &SEZ down by 1.65%, Wipro down by 1.51% and ONGC down by 1.12% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in an effort to boost transparency and streamline public sector procurement, the government has made it mandatory for all the departments and ministries to source goods and services from its online procurement site- the government e-Marketplace (GeM). This portal also provides the tools of e-bidding and reverse e-auction as well as demand aggregation to facilitate the government users to achieve the best value for the money.

The GeM was launched last year and to make use of this portal, the Finance Ministry has amended the General Financial Rules (GFRs) as per which it is now compulsory to procure items and services from it. Currently, it sells over 9,000 products from 250 categories including computers, stationery and several services.

The Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D) who has developed this portal is working on increasing the number of services ranging from cleaning and plumbing services to the digitisation of records. GeM has an opportunity to emerge as the single platform for India’s National Public Procurement Program and is also expected to result in huge savings for the government.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8911.50, down by 12.80 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 8899.50 and 8929.80. There were 16 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 1.41%, Axis Bank up by 1.34%, Asian Paints up by 1.19%, ACC up by 0.76% and SBI up by 0.70%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 4.31%, Idea Cellular down by 2.45%, GAIL India down by 1.83%, Wipro down by 1.76% and Adani Ports &SEZ down by 1.57% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 307.91 points or 1.29% to 23,474.36, Taiwan Weighted decreased 94.84 points or 0.97% to 9,658.61, Shanghai Composite decreased 30.07 points or 0.93% to 3,210.59, KOSPI Index decreased 4.35 points or 0.21% to 2,091.06 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 3.75 points or 0.22% to 1,721.79.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite increased 0.27 points or 0.01% to 5,394.04 and Nikkei 225 increased 64.55 points or 0.34% to 19,318.58.