Indian equities continue weak trade in afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower in afternoon session, on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters. The mood of the markets remained impacted with a private report stated that the government’s net revenue growth from direct taxes has decelerated sharply to 4.7% for April 1-August 15 this year as against a required annual growth rate of 17.3%, reflecting lower buoyancy in the wake of an overall slowdown in the economy. Moreover, a depreciating rupee, which slipped 17 paise to quote at 71.72 against the dollar in early trade, kept investors nervous. Traders failed to get relief with markets watchdog SEBI relaxed compliance requirements for foreign portfolio investors, tweaked norms to boost startups and decided on Rs 1 crore reward for informants in insider trading cases. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, as investors looked ahead to a speech by the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman for clues about possible interest rate cuts.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36842.52, down by 217.85 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 36731.48 and 37087.58. There were 10 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.67%, while Small cap index was down by 1.46%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 0.60%, IT up by 0.45%, TECK up by 0.35% and Healthcare was up by 0.16%, while Realty down by 4.88%, Metal down by 1.57%, Energy down by 1.43%, Basic Materials down by 1.41% and Industrials was down by 1.25% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 1.54%, TCS up by 1.48%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.15%, HCL Technologies.01% and ITC was up by 0.77%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 6.88%, Vedanta down by 3.47%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.00%, Indusind Bank down by 1.87% and NTPC was down by 1.70% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Power Minister R K Singh said that the Centre has proposed reduction in power sector funds of the states that would not maintain performance benchmarks set under the second version of the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme, which is at the draft stage. He also said that the government plans the second wave of reforms in the power distribution sector and has shared the draft with states.

Singh has stated that the Centre in November 2015 had launched the UDAY scheme to bring about operational and financial turnaround of debt-laden power distribution companies. He also said ‘we are going to combine the features of UDAY scheme (meant for revival of debt-laden discoms) Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) and Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS).’

Elaborating further, the Minister said, 'we would add features like system strengthening, expansion of access, loss reduction and reforms in one package. The funds would be targeted towards exceeding those reforms (targets). The funds release would fall if the trajectory of loss reduction (by discoms) and reforms reduce. It would happen quickly.' 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10844.90, down by 73.80 points or 0.68% after trading in a range of 10813.10 and 10908.25. There were 13 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Britannia Industries up by 3.24%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.70%, TCS up by 1.48%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.47% and Tech Mahindra was up by 1.09%. On the flip side, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 7.55%, Yes Bank down by 6.80%, UPL down by 3.99%, Vedanta down by 3.57% and Bajaj Finserv was down by 3.31% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Nikkei 225 surged 9.44 points or 0.05% to 20,628.01, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 3.98 points or 0.04% to 10,529.78, Straits Times advanced 3.47 points or 0.11% to 3,126.04 and Shanghai Composite gained 2.96 points or 0.1% to 2,883.29.

On the flip side, KOSPI fell 13.64 points or 0.69% to 1,951.01, Jakarta Composite lost 36.15 points or 0.58% to 6,216.82 and Hang Seng decreased 257.57 points or 0.98% to 26,012.47.