Bourses continue to languish in red; Nifty below 10,050 mark

Local barometer gauges continued to languish into negative territory in early afternoon session on sustained selling pressure by market-participants. Sentiments on the street remained on pessimistic mood with the report that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development trimmed India’s growth forecast for the current financial year, citing the temporary impact of the rollout of the goods and services tax and demonetisation, expecting the economy to expand at a slower pace than China. Traders also failed to draw any solace from World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) report which has raised its 2017 forecast for world trade growth to 3.6 percent from the 2.4 percent estimated earlier, a development which augurs well for India. Besides, weak Asian cues coupled with depreciation in Indian rupee against the dollar, too negatively impacted the sentiments. The broader indices were too capitulating to selling pressure with heavy losses of over 1%. In scrip specific development, Tata Motors was up by over a percent after entering into the growing compact SUV segment with the commercial launch of its compact SUV -- the Tata Nexon.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, after North Korea said it might test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean and escalated a war of words with US President Donald Trump. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32082.29, down by 287.75 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 32058.81 and 32342.81. There were 6 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.36%, while Small cap index was down by 1.38%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal down by 2.52%, Basic Materials down by 2.11%, Realty down by 1.88%, Energy down by 1.64% and Oil & Gas down by 1.60%, while there were no gainers on BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 1.54%, Cipla up by 1.01%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 0.86%, Sun Pharma up by 0.56% and Wipro up by 0.45%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 2.28%, Tata Steel down by 1.99%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.92%, Reliance Industries down by 1.88% and Infosys down by 1.67% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has raised its 2017 forecast for world trade growth to 3.6 percent from the 2.4 percent estimated earlier, a development which augurs well for India. It also said that the predicted growth would also represent a substantial improvement on the lackluster 1.3 percent increase in 2016.

The Geneva-based multi-lateral trade body has stated said that stronger growth in 2017 was attributed to a recovery of Asian trade flows as intra-regional shipments picked up and as import demand in North America improved after stalling in 2016. It also pointed out that while the improved outlook for trade is welcome news, substantial risks that threaten the world economy remain in place and that could easily undermine any trade recovery.

WTO further said that these risks include the possibility that protectionist rhetoric translates into trade restrictive actions, a worrying rise in global geopolitical tensions and a rising economic toll from natural disasters. It also said that stronger growth particularly in China and the US have boosted demand for imports. In addition, it noted that the rapid pace of trade growth this year is unlikely to be sustained next year for a number of reason. It said “First, trade growth in 2018 will not be measured against a weak base year, as is the case this year. Second, monetary policy is expected to tighten in developed countries.”

India’s exports posted a double-digit year-on-year growth of 10.29 percent after a gap of three months to $23.81 billion in August, mainly on account of sharp rise in export of petroleum products, chemicals, marine products and engineering goods. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10012.40, down by 109.50 points or 1.08% after trading in a range of 10000.25 and 10095.05. There were 8 stocks advancing against 43 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech. up by 2.14%, Tata Motors up by 1.51%, Cipla up by 0.95%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 0.73% and Sun Pharma up by 0.48%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 3.97%, Yes Bank down by 3.89%, Ultratech Cement down by 3.42%, Vedanta down by 3.15% and Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 2.70% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets were trading in red; Hang Seng decreased 230.1 points or 0.82% to 27,880.23, Taiwan Weighted dropped 128.76 points or 1.22% to 10,449.68, Nikkei 225 shed 51.03 points or 0.25% to 20,296.45, KOSPI Index dipped 17.79 points or 0.74% to 2,388.71, Shanghai Composite decreased 12.17 points or 0.36% to 3,345.64 and Jakarta Composite was down by 1.9 points or 0.03% to 5,904.67.