Benchmarks trade near the day's low lacking any supportive cues

The Indian markets have slipped further into red and both the benchmarks were trading near the day’s low in the mid noon session. Not only the bluechips but the broader markets too are witnessing profit taking. The local markets which moved in tandem with the regional peers in last session have pared all the early gains as investors preferred to stay on the sidelines due to lack of global as well as domestic cues. On the sectoral front sustained selling was seen in healthcare, telecom, metal and auto sectors, while buying were seen in Capital goods, FMCG and IT stocks.  The whole pharma sector was impacted with Divis Laboratories receiving an Import Alert 66-40 from US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for its products manufactured at the company’s Unit-II located at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. However the debutant D-Mart share was still trading higher by over 100% from its issue price. The company’s Rs 1870 crore initial public offer got an overwhelming response.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29443.00, down by 75.74 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 29422.96 and 29585.05. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices too were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.72%, while Small cap index down by 0.36%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 0.19%, IT up by 0.19%, Basic Materials up by 0.06%, FMCG up by 0.05% and TECK up by 0.02%, while Healthcare down by 1.58%, Telecom down by 1.10%, Bankex down by 0.54%, Auto down by 0.53% and Metal down by 0.49% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 0.76%, ONGC up by 0.71%, ITC up by 0.67%, Infosys up by 0.59% and Coal India up by 0.53%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 3.87%, Axis Bank down by 3.03%, Sun Pharma down by 1.81%, GAIL India down by 1.75% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.18% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a bid to reduce crude oil imports and to enhance oil and gas production, the government has set a target to reduce oil imports by 10 percent by 2021-22. Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said that the government is taking several steps to enhance exploration and production of oil and gas in the country and assured that there would be no conflict between oil & gas production and agriculture farming.

The minister elaborated that oil companies are implementing new technologies to enhance recovery from ageing fields and are also taking several measures to revive the sick wells to increase oil production, such as improved Oil Recovery/Enhanced Oil Recovery schemes.

At present, the crude oil import account for 82 per cent of the total domestic consumption and for last financial year, the same was at 80.9 per cent. Over the last three financial years, the amount of imported crude has been on the rise. In 2013-14, it stood at 77.6 per cent and rose to 78.5 per cent in 2014-15.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9107.70, down by 19.15 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 9099.75 and 9147.75. There were 19 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bosch up by 1.88%, Grasim Industries up by 1.56%, Bharti Infratel up by 1.05%, Larsen & Toubro up by 0.92% and ITC up by 0.73%. On the flip side, Idea Cellular down by 5.12%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 3.52%, Axis Bank down by 2.79%, Sun Pharma Inds. down by 1.81% and Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.68% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets barring Japanese Nikkei were trading in green Shanghai Composite was tad higher by 0.77 points or 0.02% to 3,251.58, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 3.36 points or 0.19% to 1,752.77, Jakarta Composite gained 12.44 points or 0.22% to 5,546.43, KOSPI Index added 21.37 points or 0.99% to 2,178.38, Taiwan Weighted increased by 59.52 points or 0.6% to 9,972.49 and Hang Seng was higher by 83.89 points or 0.34% to 24,585.88

On the other hand, Nikkei 225 declined by 65.71 points or 0.34% to 19,455.88.