Markets slip into red; Sensex loses over 300 points

Key Indian benchmarks erased all their gains in late afternoon session to slip into red territory, with the Sensex and the Nifty losing more than 300 and 100 points, respectively, tracking weak opening of European markets. Heavy selling pressure in almost all the sectors amid heightened fears of global trade war, dragged the indices lower. Besides, the major industry losers such as Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel and Axis Bank, also contributed to the losses. Anxiety remained among the traders ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy review that begins today. Some concerns came with the Andhra Pradesh government’s statement that the Centre 'grossly failed' in effectively implementing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and accused it of 'sidetracking' the new taxation system. The market participants also took note of Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian’s statement that it is easy to advocate one uniform GST rates for all goods, but it cannot be done ignoring political realities. Besides, in line with the larger peers, the broader indices too fell into red terrain in late noon deals. Investors failed to take further support with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the GST implementation and impact of demonetisation have resulted into higher formalisation of the Indian economy.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, as elevated concerns of a tit-for-tat trade war between the world's biggest economies overshadowed a bounce on Wall Street. Late on Tuesday, President Donald Trump revealed plans for a 25 percent tariff on a range of Chinese imports in retaliation for what the US administration alleged had been decades of state-backed intellectual property theft by Beijing. Asian markets were trading also in red. Back home, in scrip specific development, Sharika Enterprises traded jubilantly after the company received a Letter of Intent (LOI) worth around Rs 40.33 crore for designing, supplying, installation and commissioning of Solar Street Lighting Systems from one of the state government’s renewable energy agency.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33054.40, down by 316.23 points or 0.95% after trading in a range of 32999.72 and 33505.53. There were 6 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.50%, while Small cap index was down by 0.67%.

The lone gaining sectoral index on the BSE was Auto up by 0.49%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.88%, Metal down by 1.86%, PSU down by 1.46%, Basic Materials down by 1.45% and Capital Goods was down by 1.45% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 4.27%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 3.57%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.57%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 0.40% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.37%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.32%, Tata Steel down by 2.18%, Axis Bank down by 1.97%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.97% and Asian Paints down by 1.91% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, reiterating the benefits of India’s 7,600 km long coastline, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu has said that this vast coastline provides huge potential for the domestic industry in terms of exploiting marine products and promoting exports.

Prabhu noted the ministry’s efforts to make the country’s vast coastline as a food basket for the world and to push ease of doing business. Besides, he also urged the industry to focus on standards and quality of food products to promote brand India and shipments, and added that the industry will not be able to get the vest value of exports, if brand India dilutes.

The Minister has launched three portals on safe food traceability, one laboratory, one assessment and export alert monitoring. He said that the launch of these digital initiatives will help in improving shipments of quality agricultural and marine goods, and will also reinstate the confidence of India's trading partners of complete quality management of the consignment from farm to fork.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10130.30, down by 114.70 points or 1.12% after trading in a range of 10119.05 and 10279.85. There were 6 stocks advancing against 44 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 4.23%, Eicher Motors up by 3.22%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.82%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.47% and Adani Ports & SEZ up by 0.38%. On the flip side, UPL down by 3.74%, HPCL down by 2.78%, Hindalco down by 2.69%, Titan down by 2.68% and Grasim Industries down by 2.63% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 661.41 points or 2.19% to 29,518.69, Jakarta Composite decreased 82.26 points or 1.32% to 6,146.75, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 35.81 points or 1.93% to 1,814.97, KOSPI Index decreased 34.37 points or 1.41% to 2,408.06 and Shanghai Composite lost 5.52 points or 0.18% to 3,131.11. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 increased 27.26 points or 0.13% to 21,319.55.

All European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX was down by 145.1 points or 1.21% to 11,857.35, France’s CAC decreased 37.56 points or 0.73% to 5,114.56 and UK’s FTSE 100 declined 34.18 points or 0.49% to 6,996.28.