Weakness persist in markets; Banking stocks major losers

Indian equity markets have extended losses in the late morning session on Tuesday, as selling gathered some momentum. Market sentiments dampened after Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council's chairman, C Rangarajan announced that India's GDP is likely to grow at 6.4% in FY14. He sees India’s current account deficit at 4.7% of GDP in FY14. The panel also said the economy probably grew at 5% in the fiscal year 2012-13, its slowest pace in a decade. Meanwhile, trade remained cautious ahead of the derivatives expiry on Thursday and central bank's annual policy on May 3. In currency market, rupee depreciated against greenback, on the back of increasing dollar demand from oil importers and banks. On sectoral front, rate sensitive stocks, which posted strong gains in the past few sessions, were on sellers’ radar. Capital goods stocks too were mostly down on profit taking. Information technology, metal and oil stocks were finding some support.

On the global front, Asian shares were trading lower on Tuesday as fresh data showed Chinese manufacturing weakening further this month, while Japan’s Nikkei fell sharply on profit-taking and a pick-up in the yen. Back home, the market breadth was favoring negative trend; there were 1009 shares on the losing side against 896 shares on the gaining side, while 112 shares remains unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19074.43, down by 95.40 points or 0.50% after trading in a range of 19210.26 and 19056.53. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.47% and Small cap index was up by 0.24%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, IT up by 0.53%, TECk up by 0.26%, Metal up by 0.18%, Health Care up by 0.06% and Oil & Gas up by 0.30 points, while Capital Goods down by 1.77%, Bankex down by 1.45%, Realty down by 1.36%, PSU down by 0.68% and Auto down by 0.65%, were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto up by 1.30%, Reliance up by 0.99%, Tata Steel up by 0.91%, Dr Reddy’s up by 0.84%, and Wipro up by 0.78%.

On the flip side, Jindal Steel was down by 2.36%, L&T was down by 2.33%, Tata Motors was down by 2.16%, SBI was down by 1.94% and BHEL was down by 1.72% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill, 2013, to establish a statutory independent regulator, for biotech sector covering research, transport, import, manufacture and use of organisms and products of modern biotechnology has been introduced in the Lok Sabha. The Bill has been on the drafting board for years and had run into stiff opposition from green activists.

The bill provides for the setting up of an inter-ministerial governing board to oversee the performance of the proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI), which would be the nodal agency of the Government to ensure comprehensive safety assessment of organisms and biotech products. The biotech regulator would regulate trials preceding the clinical trials in the health sector and the present mechanism for regulating clinical trials would continue.

The Biotechnology Regulatory Advisory Council, with representatives from 17 government agencies involved in the regulation of biotech products, will render strategic advise to the Authority on matters relating to developments in modern biotechnology and their implications in the country.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,801.70 down by 32.70 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 5,843.35 and 5,793.70. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were JP Associate up by 1.95%, Bajaj-Auto up by 1.48%, HCL Tech up by 1.24%, Reliance up by 1.03%, and Sesa Goa up by 0.99%.

On the flip side, IndusInd Bank down by 2.94%, Bank of Baroda down by 2.70%, L&T down by 2.57%, Tata Motors down by 2.40% and Jindal Steel down by 2.36%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite tumbled 2.17%, Hang Seng declined 1.07%, Jakarta Composite slipped 0.26%, KLSE Composite contracted 0.37%, Nikkei 225 dipped 0.25%, Straits Times decreased 0.44%, KOSPI Composite dropped 0.40% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.35%.