Indian equity benchmarks made a pessimistic start and are trading with a cut of around three fourth of a percent in early deals on Monday, taking cues from weak Asian counterparts. Traders also remained on sidelines ahead of start of second leg of the Budget Session of Parliament, which is slated to commence from March 5. Traders will also be eyeing a monthly survey on the performance of India's services sector in February 2018, slated to be released later in the day. The manufacturing PMI fell to a four-month low of 52.1 against 52.4 in January. The lows come against the December high of 54.7. Sentiments also remained dampened on report that foreign investors have pulled out more than Rs 11,000 crore from Indian stocks in February 2018. This is the largest outflow in five months.
On the global front, Asian markets are trading in red at this point of time on fears of a trade war after President Donald Trump vowed to impose new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. After coming under pressure early in the session, US markets showed a significant turnaround over the course of the trading day on Friday and ended mostly in green terrain.
Back home, traders failed to get any sense of relief with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that India would retain its position of fastest growing economy in the coming decades, like China did in the last three decades. He said, the way the situation in the world is changing there is a great opportunity that has come in the way of India. The world keeps facing its challenges and in the last few years India has started leaving its footprints behind. In scrip specific developments, RInfra surged on receiving nod to sell Mumbai power business to Adani Transmission and Laurus Labs edged higher on completing USFDA audit for formulations unit.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33804.40, down by 242.54 points or 0.71% after trading in a range of 33763.35 and 34034.28. There were 4 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.
The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.76%, while Small cap index was down by 0.78%.
The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.22% and Consumer Durables was up by 0.07%, while Metal down by 2.63%, Basic Materials down by 1.79%, Oil & Gas down by 1.39%, Telecom down by 1.21% and Energy was down by 1.19% were the top losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 0.72%, Infosys up by 0.62%, Adani Ports up by 0.38% and ICICI Bank up by 0.21%. On the flip side, Tata Motors - DVR down by 2.67%, Tata Motors down by 2.40%, Tata Steel down by 2.38%, Yes Bank down by 2.24% and Coal India down by 1.69% were the top losers.
Meanwhile, amid better opportunities in other emerging markets, foreign investors have pulled out more than Rs 11,000 crore from Indian stocks in February 2018. This is the largest outflow in five months. However, the total inflow by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in the Indian equity markets stood at Rs 13,781 crore in January 2018.
As per the exchange data, the FPIs withdrew a net amount of Rs 11,037 crore from equities in the month of February. This is the highest net outflow by FPIs since September 2017, when they had pulled out Rs 11,392 crore from the Indian equity markets. In the equity segment, gross purchase was around Rs 1,07,282 crore, against gross sales of around Rs 1,18,319 crore in February.
Besides, the overseas investors withdrew a net amount of Rs 253 crore from the debt markets during the month under review. In debt segment, gross purchase was around Rs 23,425 crore against gross sales of about Rs 23,678 crore during the same month. Moreover, total outflow from equity, debt and hybrid segments stood at Rs 11287.85 crore.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India’s Managing Director and CEO Vikram Limaye has said that FPIs have pulled out of the Indian markets as they seem to be favouring other emerging markets like Brazil. He also said that global cues could be another reason for the outflow.
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10370.50, down by 87.85 points or 0.84% after trading in a range of 10356.90 and 10428.70. There were 6 stocks advancing against 44 stocks declining on the index.
The top gainers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra up by 0.92%, TCS up by 0.76%, Infosys up by 0.71%, Cipla up by 0.29% and Adani Ports up by 0.23%. On the flip side, Aurobindo Pharma down by 4.73%, Hindalco down by 3.45%, Tata Motors down by 2.74%, GAIL India down by 2.64% and Yes Bank down by 2.49% were the top losers.
Asian markets are trading in red; Hang Seng declined 344.74 points or 1.13% to 30,238.71, Nikkei 225 decreased 103.96 points or 0.49% to 21,077.68, Taiwan Weighted slipped 21.22 points or 0.2% to 10,676.95, KOSPI Index shed 15.99 points or 0.67% to 2,386.17, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dropped 14.19 points or 0.76% to 1,841.88, Jakarta Composite fell 9.04 points or 0.14% to 6,573.27 and Shanghai Composite was down by 5.31 points or 0.16% to 3,249.22.
