Bears tighten grip on Dalal Street

Indian equity benchmarks continued their sluggish trade in late afternoon session, as bears tightened their grip on the street, amid weak cues from European markets. The Sensex and Nifty lost more than 200 and 50 points, respectively, on account of heavy selling in Capital Goods, Industrials and Metal stocks. In line with the larger peers, the broader indices were too performing lackluster with losses of more than a percent each, while ICICI Bank declined the most among all other losers. Domestic sentiments weakened further with a private report stating that crude oil prices may rise further in the coming months, following which India’s current account deficit will be around 2.4% in 2018-19. Meanwhile, in a major political development, the Supreme Court held a hearing in the Karnataka government formation matter, directing that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and the state's new chief minister, B S Yeddyurappa, must conduct the floor test on Saturday at 4 pm. Anxiety remained among the traders with a another private report that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to keep policy rates unchanged in the forthcoming monetary policy review. The report added that the probability of a June hike would increase if international oil prices rise further, or the rupee depreciates significantly ahead of the June meeting.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, amid concerns about trade war and geopolitical issues. Traders, awaiting the outcome of the trade talks between the US and China, are largely tracking quarterly earnings reports for direction. However, Asian markets were trading in green. Back home, in scrip specific development, JK Tyre & Industries shined on reporting 63.70% rise in its net consolidated profit at Rs 145.37 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 as compared to Rs 88.80 crore for the corresponding quarter in the FY17.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34920.24, down by 228.88 points or 0.65% after trading in a range of 34877.29 and 35163.11. There were 8 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.23%, while Small cap index was down by 1.33%.

The lone gaining sectoral indices on the BSE was FMCG up by 1.24%, while Capital Goods down by 2.64%, Industrials down by 2.26%, Healthcare down by 1.80%, Metal down by 1.71%, Auto down by 1.54% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 1.97%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.83%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.73%, Indusind Bank up by 1.08% and TCS up by 0.64%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 3.28%, Tata Motors down by 3.27%, Larsen & Toubro down by 3.03%, Sun Pharma down by 2.84% and Tata Steel down by 2.61% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid improving regional connectivity with the government’s ‘Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik’ (UDAN) scheme, the domestic air passenger count has gone up by 24.41% during January-April 2018. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data, Indian carriers carried 453.03 lakh passengers during period under review as against 364.13 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year.

The data report also showed that domestic airlines flew 115.13 lakh passengers in April, registering a growth of 26.05%, over to 91.34 lakh passengers carried in the same period last year. Besides, in terms of passenger load factor (PLF), SpiceJet were leading among all with 95.5% PLF during the month of April 2018, followed by IndiGo (91.9) and GoAir (89.5).

In terms of on time performance (OTP), IndiGo has taken lead from the rest with 86.6% of its flights arriving and departing as per schedule from four metro airports, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, followed by SpiceJet and GoAir (86.1% each).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10614.70, down by 68.00 points or 0.64% after trading in a range of 10603.85 and 10674.95. There were 14 stocks advancing against 36 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finance up by 4.43%, Bajaj Finserv up by 3.93%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.45%, ITC up by 2.06% and Hindustan Unilever up by 1.83%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 3.38%, ICICI Bank down by 3.38%, Wipro down by 3.04%, Cipla down by 2.93% and Sun Pharma down by 2.78% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 1.49 points or 0.08% to 1,855.93, KOSPI Index increased 12.2 points or 0.5% to 2,460.65, Shanghai Composite increased 39.02 points or 1.24% to 3,193.30, Nikkei 225 increased 91.99 points or 0.4% to 22,930.36 and Hang Seng increased 105.76 points or 0.34% to 31,047.91. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite decreased 16.2 points or 0.28% to 5,799.72 and Taiwan Weighted decreased 2.97 points or 0.03% to 10,830.84.

All European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 28.11 points or 0.21% to 13,086.50, France’s CAC decreased 15.8 points or 0.28% to 5,606.12 and UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 15.7 points or 0.2% to 7,772.27.