Indian bourses continue to trade lower; Dr Reddy's, Lupin slump

key barometer gauges continued to trade lower in range bound session in early afternoon deals, with the Sensex losing around 160 points and Nifty trading below the 10,000 level, on account of selling in front line stocks. Investors didn’t took any relief from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) report that monsoon has strengthened over north central India in the last 15 years, indicating a reversal in the general perception that the region has dried up in over a decade. Moreover, disappointing quarterly earnings in some companies and a weak trend in Asia after overnight fall in Wall Street, too kept the Street wary and uncertain. In scrip specific development, Panacea Biotec was up by over four percent after entering into joint collaboration with Bionpharma Inc. for Development, License, Manufacturing, Supply and Sales of 7 complex generic pharmaceutical products.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, as investors assessed corporate earnings reports, with a sell-off in Wall Street tech stocks pressuring sentiment. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32227.88, down by 155.42 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 32164.16 and 32381.36. There were 8 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.49%, while Small cap index was up by 0.43%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.39%, PSU up by 0.23%, Utilities up by 0.18%, Oil & Gas up by 0.11% and Consumer Disc up by 0.08%, while Healthcare down by 1.46%, Telecom down by 0.64%, Metal down by 0.64%, Capital Goods down by 0.55% and Bankex down by 0.49% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 2.00%, Infosys up by 1.29%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.75%, SBI up by 0.69% and Adani Ports & SEZ up by 0.64%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 5.49%, Lupin down by 3.82%, Sun Pharma down by 3.08%, ICICI Bank down by 2.74% and Hindustan Unilever down by 1.86% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has expressed its hope that the India’s gems and jewellery sector to grow 6-7 percent annually and has set a target of $60 billion exports by 2022 from the present $43 billion. According to the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council’s provisional data, the country exported gems and jewellery worth $43.156 billion during FY17, a rise of nearly 10 percent over $39.286 billion exported in FY16.

In order to become globally competitive and promoting jewellery exports, Department of Commerce Joint Secretary Manoj Dwivedi has said that the jewellery industry needs to achieve a higher scale of achievement in the coming years. He also mentioned that the government is making various policy initiatives to find out ways and mean to improve this sector since it is only sector having maximum employment opportunities to both skilled and unskilled workers pan India.

Adding further, he pointed out that although the downward trend witnessed in the global markets, the country's gems and jewellery exports showed upward trend, which is very positive sign. He also stated that they want to explore new markets for jewellery and diamond exports for which process is on.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9983.30, down by 37.25 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 9963.05 and 9999.35. There were 16 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Yes Bank up by 2.88%, HDFC up by 1.94%, Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 1.43%, ONGC up by 1.26% and Infosys up by 1.21%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 5.42%, Lupin down by 3.77%, Sun Pharma down by 3.13%, ICICI Bank down by 2.73% and Hindustan Unilever down by 1.89% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 160.84 points or 0.59% to 26,970.33, Nikkei 225 was down by 119.8 points or 0.6% to 19,959.84, Taiwan Weighted shed 85.32 points or 0.81% to 10,423.05, KOSPI Index dipped 42.25 points or 1.73% to 2,400.99, Jakarta Composite decreased 10.86 points or 0.19% to 5,808.88 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI declined 0.76 points or 0.04% to 1,769.31.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was up by 4.03 points or 0.12% to 3,253.81.