Indian bourses continue to trade under pressure

Following weak Asian markets, Indian bourses continued their weak trade in early afternoon session, with selling in frontline blue chip counters. The mood of the markets remained impacted by report that foreign investors have pulled out more than Rs 11,000 crore from Indian stocks in February 2018, amid better opportunities in other emerging markets. This is the largest outflow in five months. Additional pressure also came with report highlighting that Indian services sector contracted in February and fell to a six-month low, as new work orders suffered amid weak underlying demand conditions. The seasonally adjusted Nikkei India Services Business Activity Index fell from 51.7 in January to 47.8 in February, its lowest level since August. The sentiments remained lower even as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley exhorted confidence that India would retain its position of fastest growing economy in the coming decades, like China did in the last three decades.  Barring Consumer Durables, all other BSE sectoral indices were trading in the negative zone. In scrip specific development, Dilip Buildcon was up by around a percent after receiving LoA from the NHAI for two new Hybrid Annuity Projects valued at Rs 4,473 crore in the State of Karnataka.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, as the fallout from United States President Donald Trump's steel and aluminium tariffs continues to feed concerns of a global trade war. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33725.02, down by 321.92 points or 0.95% after trading in a range of 33702.57 and 34034.28. There were 3 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.16%, while Small cap index was down by 1.19%.

The only gaining sectoral index on the BSE was Consumer Durables up by 0.51%, while Metal down by 3.51%, Basic Materials down by 2.47%, Energy down by 1.81%, Oil & Gas down by 1.73% and Industrials down by 1.51% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 0.88%, SBI up by 0.13% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.11%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 3.38%, Tata Steel down by 3.24%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 3.08%, Bajaj Auto down by 2.48% and Yes Bank down by 2.24% 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 10343.50, down by 114.85 points or 1.10% after trading in a range of 10337.40 and 10428.70. There were 4 stocks advancing against 45 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were TCS up by 1.22%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.01%, SBI up by 0.23%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.21% and Cipla up by 0.00%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 4.38%, Tata Motors down by 3.49%, Aurobindo Pharma down by 3.44%, Tata Steel down by 3.22% and Vedanta down by 3.12% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets were trading in red; Hang Seng decreased 425.69 points or 1.39% to 30,157.76, Nikkei 225 shed 139.55 points or 0.66% to 21,042.09, Taiwan Weighted was down by 55.27 points or 0.52% to 10,642.90, KOSPI Index dropped 27.1 points or 1.13% to 2,375.06, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI dipped 13.96 points or 0.75% to 1,842.11, Shanghai Composite decreased 4.16 points or 0.13% to 3,250.37 and Jakarta Composite was down by 3.14 points or 0.05% to 6,579.18.