Markets trade at day's low; Nifty below 10,150 mark

Extending their early losses, the local equity markets continued weak trade and were now trading at day’s low points in early afternoon session, on the back of sustained selling activities by market-participants. The mood on the street remained cautious with report that India’s October-December current account deficit sharply widened from a year earlier on higher imports. The October-December current account deficit widened to 2.0 percent of gross domestic product, or $13.5 billion, compared with 1.4 percent, or $8.0 billion, in the same period a year ago. Investors also ignored the report that overseas investors have pumped in nearly Rs 6,400 crore in the segment in March so far on expectations of rebound in corporate earnings and easing of global oil prices. Moreover, depreciation in Indian rupee for the third day in a row on account of appreciation of the dollar overseas, also weighed on the sentiments. Barring Capital Goods, all other BSE sectoral indices were trading in the negative zone. In scrip specific development, Shilpa Medicare rallied over seven percent on receiving EIR from the USFDA for its formulations manufacturing facility located at Jadcherla, Telangana, India. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, as investors remained cautious ahead of Wednesday’s FOMC meeting for guidance on the US Federal Reserve’s rate hike path. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33056.02, down by 119.98 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 33042.08 and 33275.79. There were 9 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 1.33%, while Small cap index was down by 1.48%.

The lone gaining sectoral index on the BSE was Capital Goods up by 0.05%, while Metal down by 2.77%, Basic Materials down by 1.83%, PSU down by 1.82%, Realty down by 1.81% and Telecom down by 1.72% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid up by 1.14%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.08%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.80%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.67% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.36%. On the flip side, Adani Ports &SEZ down by 3.69%, Tata Steel down by 3.12%, Coal India down by 2.46%, Asian Paints down by 1.88% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.82% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, domestic credit rating agency, ICRA in its latest report has said that the US president’s recent move to impose a 25 percent tariff on all steel imports is unlikely to have any significant impact on the domestic steel industry in the medium term. It noted that the tariffs will take effect on March 23, 2018 and would be effective on all countries except Canada and Mexico which together comprises about a quarter of the total US imports.

According to the report, the impact of import tariffs may not be significant in the medium term due to reasons like global steel demand (ex-USA) is expected to increase by 25 MT in calendar year (CY) 2018. It noted that India's steel exports to the USA market remained a meagre 0.7 MT in CY2017, accounting for less than 1 percent of India's domestic demand. Therefore, it pointed out that Indian steel mills should be able to find an alternate market for its nominal US export volumes without much difficulty.

The rating agency further stated that Chinese steel exports has been steadily declining in the last two years, reaching 75 MT in CY2017 from the peak level of 112 MT in CY2015, and in the current year too, exports have continued to shrink, declining by 27.1 percent in the first two months of CY2018. It also noted that this trend is expected to continue throughout CY2018 on the back of a resilient Chinese domestic demand and proposed steel capacity cuts.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10140.35, down by 54.80 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 10136.95 and 10224.55. There were 12 stocks advancing against 38 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Power Grid up by 1.14%, Lupin up by 1.13%, Larsen & Toubro up by 0.93%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.91% and Maruti Suzuki up by 0.80%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 3.65%, Adani Ports &SEZ down by 3.52%, Hindalco down by 3.50%, Indian Oil Corp. down by 3.49% and HPCL down by 3.26% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 2.5 points or 0.14% to 1,848.89, Shanghai Composite was up by 6.18 points or 0.19% to 3,276.06, Taiwan Weighted added 19.2 points or 0.17% to 11,046.90 and Hang Seng rose 86.64 points or 0.28% to 31,588.61. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 195.61 points or 0.9% to 21,480.90, KOSPI Index was down by 18.94 points or 0.76% to 2,475.03 and Jakarta Composite shed 10.39 points or 0.16% to 6,294.56.