Bears tighten grip on Dalal Street

Bears held their tight grip on Dalal Street in late afternoon session, with Sensex and Nifty extending losses to trade near their intraday low points, despite firm cues from other Asian markets. Heavy losses led by Oil & Gas, Energy and Realty stocks along with sluggish broader indices, weighed on the trading sentiments. Investors remained worried with a private report that business sentiments continue to decline for the country's financial and macro-economic conditions in the second quarter of the year compared to the same period a year before. As per the report, Composite Business Optimism Index stands at 78.4 during Q2 2019 as against 85.0 during Q2 2018 marking a 7.7% decline. The street also got cautious, amid reports that National transporter Indian Railways account for nearly three-fifths of 344 central sector projects that are facing huge cost overrun due to delay in implementation for various reasons. The latest flash report of the Statistics and Programme Implementation Ministry (MOSPI) for December 2018 showed that total cost overrun of 205 delayed railway projects is whopping Rs 2.21 trillion.

On the global front, European markets remained closed on Monday for Easter holiday. Asian markets were trading in green, even though producer prices in South Korea were up 0.3 percent on month in March. The Bank of Korea said that this follows the 0.1 percent increase in February. Individually, agricultural, forestry and marine products climbed 1.0 percent on month, while manufacturing products added 0.4 percent, services rose 0.2 percent and utilities were flat. On a yearly basis, producer prices added 0.1 percent after sliding 0.2 percent in the previous month.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38716.15, down by 424.13 points or 1.08% after trading in a range of 38714.47 and 39158.22. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.30%, while Small cap index was down by 1.25%.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.83% and TECK up by 0.64%, while Oil & Gas down by 2.89%, Energy down by 2.36%, Realty down by 2.35%, Bankex down by 1.79% and PSU down by 1.67% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 1.05%, TCS up by 1.05%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.63%, Power Grid up by 0.18% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.16%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 5.52%, Indusind Bank down by 4.16%, Reliance Industries down by 2.27%, HDFC down by 2.19% and ICICI Bank down by 2.19% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, owing to the factors like credit crunch, delays in goods and services tax (GST) refunds, and high import duties on polished diamond, India’s gems & jewellery exports fell 3.12% during 2018-19 (FY19). According to the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) data report, gross gems and jewellery exports from India decreased to $39.68 billion in 2018-19 as compared to $40.96 billion in the previous year.

However, the report further noted that gross cut and polished diamond exports from India remained stable at $23.82 billion during 2018-19 as against $23.72 billion in the previous year. The Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council also mentioned that gold jewellery exports from India prevented a steep fall in exports, on account of growth in export at special economic zones (SEZs) and export-oriented units (EOUs).

Exports from special economic zones and export-oriented units witnessed a good jump in the gold jewellery segment, rising 24.36% to $12.03 billion in FY19 as compared to $9.67 billion in the previous year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11611.20, down by 141.60 points or 1.20% after trading in a range of 11609.50 and 11727.05. There were 11 stocks advancing against 39 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Wipro up by 1.37%, Infosys up by 0.96%, Tech Mahindra up by 0.87%, TCS up by 0.64% and UPL up by 0.42%. On the flip side, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 6.94%, BPCL down by 5.99%, Yes Bank down by 5.96%, Indusind Bank down by 4.13% and Indian Oil Corporation down by 4.04% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted gained 19.21 points or 0.18% to 10,987.71, Nikkei 225 surged 17.34 points or 0.08% to 22,217.90, Straits Times advanced 4.48 points or 0.13% to 3,352.06 and KOSPI was up by 0.50 points or 0.02% to 2,216.65. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 46.39 points or 1.42% to 3,224.41 and Jakarta Composite was down by 80.02 points or 1.23% to 6,427.20.