Equity markets turn deep in red; Nifty drifts below 4,900 mark

Indian equity markets continue southward journey and currently trading near low point of the day on strong selling across the board. The BSE Sensex fell 1.7% while NSE Nifty drifted below 4,900 mark. On sectoral front, all were trading in red. Automobile and metal stocks were leading the losers. Stocks from power, realty, banking and capital goods sectors were also mostly down with sharp losses. Consumer durables, PSU and information technology stocks too were trading weak. In currency markets, Indian rupee hits five month low paring earlier day’s gains amid increased capital outflows. On the global front, Asian shares were also trading in red. Back home, the market breadth favoring negative trend; there were 739 shares on the gaining side against 1,564 shares on the losing side while 100 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading lower by 292.93 points or 1.79% at 16,035.32, after touching a high of 16,132.68 and low of 16,013.17. There were just 2 stocks advancing against 28 declining ones on the index.

The broader indices too trading in red; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices declined 1.03% and 1.03% respectively.

There were no gaining index on BSE sectoral front, while the major losing sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto down by 3.01%, Metal down by 2.44%, Power down by 2.33%, Bankex down by 2.04% and CD down by 2.02%.

The few gainers on the Sensex were Gail India up by 0.75% and TCS up by 0.07%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 6.53%, HDFC down by 4.25%, BHEL down by 3.80%, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.28% and ICICI Bank down by 3.21% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a major development, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has imposed a cap on ads in its regulations in context to the provision of advertisements in TV channels. Reiterating its stand the regulator stated that no broadcaster shall carry advertisements exceeding 12 minutes in a clock hour in a programme. It further stated that any shortfall of advertisement duration in a clock hour shall not be carried over. Advertisements included not only the commercials but also the channel’s own promotions, for its shows or for the channel per se. Clock hour has been defined as commencing at 00.00 of the hour and ending at 00.60. For the live broadcast of a sporting event, the advertisements shall be carried only during the breaks in the sporting action.

TRAI has drawn out various regulations impacting advertising on television. Through its notification, on the Standards of Quality of Service (Duration of Advertisements in Television Channels 2012), the TRAI has chalked out not only the duration of ad time but also the gap between ads and the kind of advertising allowed.

TRAI has also directed that channels can only show full screen advertising. No part screen or drop down advertisements are allowed. Explaining the reason behind that TRAI said that advertising should be clearly distinguished from content and should not in any manner interfere with the programme by using the lower part of the screen to carry captions, static or moving alongside the programme.

Though it’s a welcome proposal from the viewers point, the broadcasters are not happy and have opposed the suggestions of TRAI. Broadcasters had pointed out to the TRAI that there was a precedence of a Supreme Court ruling, which had held that the restriction on advertising space in newspapers would lead to reduction in its revenue, which was in violation of Article 19 (1)(a). The same rule should also apply to television.

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 4,851.00, lower by 91.80 points or 1.86%. The index has touched a high and low of 4,882.25 and 4,848.75 respectively. There were only 7 stocks advancing against 43 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were BPCL up by 2.97%, Bank of Baroda up by 2.17%, Cairn up by 1.69%, Gail India up by 0.76% and Dr Reddy up by 0.70%.

On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 6.66%, HDFC down by 4.35%, BHEL down by 4.02%, JP Associates down by 3.91%, and IDFC down by 3.86%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite declined by 0.60%, Hang Seng plunged 2.91%, Jakarta Composite got thrashed by 2.47%, KLSE Composite lost 0.94%, Nikkei 225 sank 1.28%, Straits Times Index dived 1.31%, KOSPI Composite slumped 2.98% and Taiwan Weighted surrendered 2.18%.