Weak trade continues on D-Street

Weak trade continued on Dalal Street in late afternoon session, on the back of negative opening of European markets. In line with the larger peers, the broader indices were also lingering under pressure in late noon deals, while Yes Bank performed the worst among all major industry leaders on the BSE. Sentiments remained lackluster as the government data showed that India's factory output growth, measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), slowed down for second straight month to 2.0% in June 2019 as compared to 7% in June 2018 and it is also lower than 3.1% in May 2019. The slowdown was mainly due to poor performance of the manufacturing and mining sectors and a contraction in the capital goods and consumer durables sectors.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, as Germany's investor confidence dropped sharply in August to its lowest level since the end of 2011. The survey data from the ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research showed that the ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany tumbled to -44.1 from -24.5 in July, reaching its lowest level since December 2011. Asian markets were also trading in red.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 37090.72, down by 491.19 points or 1.31% after trading in a range of 37087.35 and 37755.16. There were 5 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 2.07%, while Small cap index was down by 1.24%.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 6.73% and Oil & Gas up by 1.90%, while Telecom down by 3.80%, Auto down by 3.39%, Capital Goods down by 2.80%, Power down by 2.40% and Industrials down by 2.38% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 10.50%, Sun Pharma up by 1.33%, Power Grid up by 0.57%, ONGC up by 0.31% and Tata Motors up by 0.29%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 9.32%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 5.50%, Bajaj Finance down by 5.38%, NTPC down by 5.37% and HDFC down by 4.61% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, auto sales continued to remain under pressure in the month of July, as the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed that domestic passenger vehicle (PV) sales fell 30.98 percent to 2,00,790 units in July from 2,90,931 units in the same period a year ago.

Further, domestic car sales were down 35.95 percent at 1,22,956 units in the reported month as against 1,91,979 units in July 2018, while total two-wheeler sales in July declined 16.82 percent to 15,11,692 units as compared to 18,17,406 units in the year-ago month.

As per the report, sales of commercial vehicles were also down 25.71 percent to 56,866 units in July as compared with 76,545 units in the year-ago period. Besides, vehicle sales across categories registered a decline of 18.71 percent to 18,25,148 units from 22,45,223 units in July 2018.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10943.45, down by 166.20 points or 1.50% after trading in a range of 10939.85 and 11145.90. There were 8 stocks advancing against 41 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Reliance Industries up by 10.05%, Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 9.65%, GAIL India up by 2.38%, Sun Pharma up by 0.97% and Hindalco up by 0.54%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 9.62%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 5.91%, Bajaj Finance down by 5.69%, NTPC down by 5.57% and Bajaj Finserv down by 5.23% were the top losers.

All the Asian counters were trading in red; Taiwan Weighted dropped 109.70 points or 1.05% to 10,362.66, Nikkei 225 slipped 229.38 points or 1.11% to 20,455.44, KOSPI fell 16.46 points or 0.85% to 1,925.83, Jakarta Composite lost 37.40 points or 0.6% to 6,213.20, Straits Times trembled 29.64 points or 0.94% to 3,139.30, Shanghai Composite declined 21.13 points or 0.75% to 2,793.86 and Hang Seng was down by 492.66 points or 1.91% to 25,332.06.

All European markets were trading in red; FTSE lost 35.51 points or 0.49% to 7,191.21, CAC fell 27.44 points or 0.52% to 5,282.87 and DAX was down by 88.08 points or 0.75% to 11,591.60.