Bears tighten grip on Dalal Street

The local equity benchmarks continued their sluggish trade in late afternoon session, as bears tighten grip on the markets, tracking weak opening in European markets. Weak banking and TECK stocks along with major industry losers such as Yes Bank and Infosys, were weighed on the markets. Traders were cautious with the India Ratings’ report that corporate loans worth nearly Rs 2 trillion may turn bad in the next 12-18 months. Sentiments also remained downbeat with the report that foreign portfolio investors have turned wary on Indian shares again owing to the recent global market sell-off triggered by rising bond yields in developed markets including in the US and the euro zone. FPIs have sold shares worth Rs 3,665.6 crore in the domestic stock market (including provisional data of Wednesday and Thursday) in February after pumping close to Rs 13,000 crore into Indian equities in January. However, the broader markets managed to erase all the losses and were now trading with gains of more than 0.20%., while Metal stocks gained the most among other sectoral indices.

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in red, as investors geared up for earnings, while keeping an eye on the turbulence seen across markets worldwide. Asian markets were also trading in red. Back home, in scrip specific development, Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) declined despite reporting rise of 63.77% in its net profit at Rs 153.19 crore for third quarter ended December 31, 2017, as compared to net profit of Rs 93.54 crore for the same quarter in the previous year.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34060.55, down by 352.61 points or 1.02% after trading in a range of 33849.65 and 34070.73. There were 5 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.20%, while Small cap index was up by 0.34%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.52%, Realty up by 1.19%, Basic Materials up by 0.62%, Power up by 0.40% and Utilities up by 0.32%, while Bankex down by 1.54%, TECK down by 0.89%, IT down by 0.83%, Capital Goods down by 0.75% and Telecom down by 0.73% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 2.36%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.24%, Asian Paints up by 0.98%, ONGC up by 0.21% and Coal India up by 0.10%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 2.33%, ICICI Bank down by 2.27%, HDFC down by 2.20%, Axis Bank down by 2.16% and Infosys down by 1.83% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, emphasizing the government’s decision to increase the target of providing free liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connection to 8 crore from 5 crore, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan has said that as many as 3 crore additional free cooking gas connections will be given to poor households at an extra expense of Rs 4,800 crore and added that the revised target of 8 crore will be achieved by March 2020.

Pradhan further noted that under Prime Minister’s Ujjwala Scheme to make poor women free from the smoke of wood, 5 crore connections were to be given by 2018-19 fiscal year end and total Budgetary allocation made was Rs 8,000 crore and now, the scheme has been extended by one year and the target of beneficiaries also enhanced by 3 crore more connections.

Besides, the Minister also highlighted the expansion in scope of the scheme to cover all the eligible beneficiaries across the country. Earlier, the Ujjwala beneficiaries were being chosen from the Socio Economic Caste Survey (SECC) 2011 list only, but now the list has been expanded to include providing free cooking gas connection to all SC/ST households, forest dwellers, most backward classes, inhabitants of islands, nomadic tribes, tea estates and beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and Antyodaya Yojana.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10469.65, down by 107.20 points or 1.01% after trading in a range of 10398.20 and 10478.10. There were 11 stocks advancing against 39 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 2.57%, HCL Tech up by 2.10%, Vedanta up by 1.62%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.13% and Lupin up by 1.05%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 2.57%, Axis Bank down by 2.42%, Bharti Infratel down by 2.21%, HDFC down by 2.16% and ICICI Bank down by 2.13% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in red; Hang Seng decreased 943.85 points or 3.1% to 29,507.42, Nikkei 225 decreased 508.24 points or 2.32% to 21,382.62, Taiwan Weighted decreased 156.77 points or 1.49% to 10,371.75, Shanghai Composite decreased 132.2 points or 4.05% to 3,129.85, Jakarta Composite decreased 75.31 points or 1.15% to 6,469.33, KOSPI Index decreased 43.85 points or 1.82% to 2,363.77 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 16.91 points or 0.92% to 1,822.53.

European markets were trading mostly in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 32.64 points or 0.46% to 7,138.05 and France’s CAC decreased 10.19 points or 0.2% to 5,141.49. On the flip side, Germany’s DAX increased 6.4 points or 0.05% to 12,266.69.