Sensex, Nifty at day’s low

Indian equity benchmarks added losses and were hovering near the intraday low points in late afternoon session, with Sensex and Nifty falling more than 200 and 50 points, respectively, amid mixed cues from European markets. In line with the larger peers, the broader markets were too plunging sharply with notable losses, while all the sectoral indices were trading lower on the BSE with Telecom declined the most by over 3%. Domestic sentiments remained downbeat on the back negative Services PMI data. As per the survey report, the seasonally adjusted Nikkei Services Business Activity Index contracted to 49.6 in the month of May from 51.4 in April. The Nikkei India Composite PMI Output Index, which measures both manufacturing and services, also fell to 50.4 in May from 51.9 in April. The market participants also remained concerned as Commerce and industry ministry Suresh Prabhu cautioned that unilateral trade measures and counter measures can stop the fragile global economic recovery in its tracks and have implications for jobs, economic growth and development. Some concerns were also came with report that global economic growth could slow down by 1 percentage point - or more than a quarter of the expansion rates projected by various international bodies - if US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats against China and others escalate into a full-blown trade war.

On the global front, European markets were trading mixed, as trade concerns continued to impact global markets. As Italian concerns abate, investors now looked forward to next week's FOMC meeting for indications whether the Federal Reserve will accelerate the pace of its rate hikes. The focus also remained on this week' G7 summit in Canada and the upcoming Trump-Kim summit slated for June 12 in Singapore. However, Asian markets were trading in green. Back home, in scrip specific development, Hypersoft Technologies surged on entering into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tradelab Software (TSPL) for distributing the software and services to the clients within the territory, under the brand of TSPL.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34797.95, down by 213.94 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 34784.68 and 35073.12. There were 4 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.63%, while Small cap index was down by 2.72%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom down by 3.48%, Capital Goods down by 2.19%, Industrials down by 2.01%, TECK down by 1.81% and IT down by 1.75%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 0.65%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.37%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.18% and HDFC Bank up by 0.05%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.89%, Coal India down by 2.65%, Larsen & Toubro down by 2.04%, Yes Bank down by 2.04% and Axis Bank down by 1.95% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, falling to a three-month low, India’s services sector lost its momentum in the month of May, on a broad stagnation in new orders. Besides, accelerating input cost inflation coupled with slower job creation, also pulled the index lower below the 50.0 no-change mark. As per the survey report, the seasonally adjusted Nikkei Services Business Activity Index contracted to 49.6 in the month of May from 51.4 in April. The Nikkei India Composite PMI Output Index, which measures both manufacturing and services, also fell to 50.4 in May from 51.9 in April.

The report found that output of services sector declined due to competitive demand conditions and modest growth in the manufacturing sector outweighed the marginal decline in the service sector.  Further, it said that though the new business at manufacturing firms grew to continue expansion rally for seventh successive month, rate of expansion was the weakest in three months. Further, backlogs at service providers rose marginally in May, on higher volumes of unfinished business due to delay in payments by clients.

On inflation front, input cost inflation in the service sector picked up from April’s eight-month low on account of higher salaries along with rising oil and vegetables prices. Manufacturers companies also remained cost burdened for the thirty-second consecutive month in the reported month. However, service sector output charge inflation during the month fell marginally to an 11-month low.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10562.10, down by 66.40 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 10550.90 and 10633.15. There were 10 stocks advancing against 39 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 2.29%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.70%, Reliance Industries up by 0.54%, HPCL up by 0.38% and Maruti Suzuki up by 0.38%. On the flip side, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 2.98%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.87%, Zee Entertainment down by 2.78%, Coal India down by 2.70% and Titan down by 2.56% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 6 points or 0.25% to 2,453.76, Shanghai Composite increased 23.02 points or 0.74% to 3,114.21, Jakarta Composite increased 58.21 points or 0.97% to 6,073.03, Nikkei 225 increased 63.6 points or 0.28% to 22,539.54 and Hang Seng increased 95.47 points or 0.31% to 31,093.45. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted decreased 9.39 points or 0.08% to 11,100.11 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 2 points or 0.11% to 1,753.17.

European markets were trading mixed; France’s CAC increased 21.13 points or 0.39% to 5,494.04 and Germany’s DAX increased 54.83 points or 0.43% to 12,825.58. On the flip side, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 14.34 points or 0.19% to 7,726.95.