Benchmarks continue to reel under pressure; global worries haunt

Witnessing colossal losses, benchmark equity indices continue to languish in red terrain, in sync with weak global set-up, on worries that the Federal Reserve could slow its bond buying program. Back home, trading at day’s low point, Sensex was trading off its 19500 level and Nifty was below its 5900 mark. Additionally, broader indices too witnessing persistent selling pressure were down with cut of close to a percent. Drubbing in Metal, Realty and Fast Moving Consumer Goods, along other sectoral spaces, led to the sharp decline of the bourses. Meanwhile, Banking shares, viz, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, too were trading weak a day after RBI data showed that loan growth continues to remain a concern. Banks' advances grew 8.7 percent so far this fiscal year, compared with 11.2 percent a year earlier, while deposit growth was 7.8 percent compared with 11.4 percent in the same period a year earlier. The overall market breadth on BSE continued to be in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 1655:813, while 125 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19460.95, down by 181.80 points or 0.93% after trading in a range of 19,554.65 and 19,447.64. There were 5 stocks advancing against 25 declines on the index.

The broader indices too continued to reel under pressure; the BSE Mid and Small cap indices were trading lower by 0.80% and 0.98% respectively.  

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal down by 2.23%, Realty down by 1.45%, FMCG down by 1.28% Capital Goods down by 1.23%, and Bankex down by 1.21% while, Consumer Durables up by 0.35% was the sole gainer on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto up by 0.53%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.48%, Cipla up by 0.33%, NTPC up by 0.16% and Tata Power up by 0.10%.

On the flip side, Sterlite Industries down by 3.28%, ICICI Bank down by 2.68%, Hindalco Industries down by 2.64%, Jindal Steel was down by 2.58% and Tata Steel down by 2.32% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in the upcoming Budget session, a bill to replace Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) by a new aviation regulatory body -- the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) - with full operational and financial autonomy is expected to be tabled in Parliament. Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said, ‘we are preparing a cabinet note on creating the CAA. We have sent a draft of the proposal to the law ministry and hope that we will be able to table the bill in the second half of this budget session itself.’

Disappointed over the past performance of the DGCA, Ajit Singh said that despite the increase in air passenger, aircraft movement over the past six years, the strength of DGCA, which is the regulatory body in the field of civil aviation, has gone up only in a marginal manner mainly due to the cumbersome recruitment process under the UPSC.

On the other hand, the proposed CAA, with full functional and financial autonomy, would be able to recruit its own staff, decide on their pay structure and the powers to fix and collect fees for rendering services like safety oversight and surveillance of air navigation services. As per the minister, the estimated cost of the CAA would be around Rs 112 crore and will be self financing. CAA will have a separate fund that would finance its entire expenses and will also get budgetary support.

Regarding the organization set up, Ajit Singh said that the proposed CAA would have a Chairperson, a Director General and 7-9 members, including five whole-time members. All of them would be appointed by the Centre on the recommendation of a Selection Committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary. 

The S&P CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,889.00, down by 54.05 points or 0.91% after trading in a range of 5,921.15 and 5,886.55. There were 7 stocks advancing against 42 declines on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers of the Nifty were HCL Tech up by 0.96%, Bajaj-Auto up by 0.68%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.64%, Power Grid up by 0.55% and Cipla up by 0.43%.

On the flip side, Jaiprakash Associates down by 3.28%, Sesa Goa down by 2.79%, IDFC down by 2.78%, ICICI Bank down by 2.75% and Jindal Steel down by 2.59%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite plunged 2.90%, Hang Seng declined 1.72%, KLSE Composite dipped 0.37%, Nikkei 225 dropped 1.39%, Straits Times contracted 0.49%, KOSPI Composite decreased 0.47%, Taiwan Weighted down by 0.89% and Jakarta Composite slid by 0.24%