Benchmarks continue lackluster trade slightly in red

Indian equity benchmarks continued their lackluster trade slightly in red in early afternoon session, on the back of sustained selling activities by market-participants. Traders remained on sidelines ahead of meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and other top officials to take stock of the situation and the discussion for remedial measures to bolster growth. Moreover, a weak trend at other Asian markets ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting, too dampened investors’ sentiments. The rupee has also come under pressure, falling 5 paise to 64.18 against US dollar in early trade at the forex market. However, the gains were muted as some support came with Moody’s latest report that India is likely see increased foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on the back of reforms such as introduction of the goods and services tax and the bankruptcy code. In scrip specific development, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals was up by over two percent after receiving final approval from USFDA for Desonide Ointment.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, as investors preferred to stay on the sidelines ahead of the US Federal Reserve's two-day monetary policy meeting that begins later in the day. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32400.56, down by 23.20 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 32358.63 and 32524.11. There were 18 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.28%, while Small cap index was up by 0.44%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 0.79%, Oil & Gas up by 0.75%, Industrials up by 0.72%, Realty up by 0.67% and Utilities up by 0.43%, while Metal down by 0.41%, Energy down by 0.14%, Consumer Durables down by 0.10%, Capital Goods down by 0.09% and FMCG down by 0.08% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 4.75%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.92%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.48%, Sun Pharma up by 0.76% and Wipro up by 0.28%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 2.42%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.35%, Axis Bank down by 1.12%, ITC down by 0.96% and SBI down by 0.85% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to promote the telecom equipment manufacturing industry in India, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has started second phase of consultation process. The regulator has said that the consultation paper will discuss the controversial issue of standard essential patents and grant of their licence for use on the basis of fair, reasonable and on-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. It also said that the issue has been a bone of contention between domestic mobile phone companies and European multi-nationals. It had floated a consultation paper titled ‘Encouraging Telecom Manufacturing in India’ on December 28, 2010 and issued recommendations on the same in April 2011.

TRAI has said that the present consultation paper has been aimed to realistically assess India’s true potential in equipment manufacturing with the aim to arrive at recommendations that would enable Indian telecom industry to transition from an import-dependent industry to a global hub for manufacturing. It pointed out that while the Mobile handset manufacturing industry has shown good progress in the past five years, the telecom equipment manufacturing industry has not been able to match the performance of mobile handset manufacturing industry. Previously, it had come out with its recommendations in 2011 on telecom equipment manufacturing policy.

The regulator has said that today, the services sector commands nearly 60 percent of India's gross domestic product (GDP) whereas the share of manufacturing, a major contributor to the infrastructure domain, has been stagnating at around 16 percent on average since 1990. Further, it cited a report which showed that over 90 percent of the demand of telecom equipment in India was met through imports in 2013-14, and was the same even now.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10145.30, down by 7.80 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 10129.95 and 10178.95. There were 26 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 4.80%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.74%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.65%, GAIL India up by 2.56% and Bharti Infratel up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 2.42%, Axis Bank down by 1.27%, Bank of Baroda down by 1.24%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.17% and ITC down by 1.01% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 65.64 points or 0.23% to 28,094.13, Taiwan Weighted dipped 55.43 points or 0.52% to 10,576.14, Shanghai Composite dropped 16.93 points or 0.5% to 3,345.93, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 3.75 points or 0.21% to 1,779.91, KOSPI Index shed 2.16 points or 0.09% to 2,416.05 and Jakarta Composite decreased 2.04 points or 0.03% to 5,882.57.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 was up by 389.88 points or 1.96% to 20,299.38.