Weakness persist in markets; pharma, consumer durables major draggers

Following a positive opening and subsequent retreat, Indian equity markets extended early losses amid alternate bouts of buying and selling. Investors were quite reluctant to build up positions, with no fresh triggers to warrant any strong buying. The Sensex down by 39.88 points, while Nifty was down by 14.45 points. In currency market, rupee depreciated against greenback amid increasing dollar demand from importers. On the sectoral front, gains in technology, realty and power were offset by losses in banks, pharmaceuticals and consumer durables sectors. Among individual stocks, TTK Prestige rallied 6%, after reporting 42% year-on-year jump in net profit at Rs 28 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31.

On the global front, most Asian markets were trading in positive territory on Friday with investors indulging in some selective buying, despite weak cues from Wall Street where stocks ended lower overnight amid some disappointing economic data. US equities sagged on Thursday after John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said the Fed could begin easing back on the monetary gas pedal this summer and end bond buying late this year. Back home, the market breadth was still favoring negative trend; there were 962 shares on the gaining side against 1,033 shares on the losing side, while 136 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20,207.45, down by 39.88 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 20,308.97 and 20,185.27. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.12% and Small cap index was up by 0.12%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Realty up by 1.09%, Power up by 0.92%, IT up by 0.21%, Auto up by 0.20% and PSU up by 0.17%, while, Consumer Durables down by 1.22%, Health Care down by 0.57%, Bankex down 0.35%, Oil & Gas down 0.28 and FMCG down by 0.23% were the losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 1.89%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.02%, TCS up by 0.79%, Jindal Steel up by 0.70%, ICICI Bank up by 0.62%.

On the flip side, Dr Reddys Lab was down by 1.59%, Wipro was down by 1.37%, Sterlite Industries was down by 1.32%, HDFC Bank was down by 1.17%, and Bharti Airtel was down by 1.12% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in a move to boost the country’s export, the External Affairs Ministry will draw a roadmap to push export promotion activities and counteract the exports slowdown. After the meeting on export promotion, the ministry said in a statement that it intends to identify core areas of exports and investments abroad so that all export promotion activities get a certain focus and become result oriented.  

The meeting, which was organised by Export Promotion Committee (EPC) aimed at identifying the possible thrust regions and products for undertaking export promotion activities and attended by representatives of 26 Export Promotion Councils and business chambers - FICCI, CII, Assocham and PHD Chamber. The possibility of investment promotion and business development in the two key sectors of pharmaceuticals and electronics was also discussed in a meeting.

The EPC has suggested export promotion activities which could be carried out by the Missions. Further, the council has identified areas and countries, which could be concentrated upon for market expansion activities. These included markets of Latin America, Eastern Europe, East Asia and South East Asia. Meanwhile, the participants of the meeting were assured that their suggestions would be looked into and conveyed to Indian Missions abroad to promote export.

The councils also raised some of the problems which they faced in different sectors and agreed that regular meetings on investments, exports and sectoral issues would be held by the external affair ministry so that these interactions will become dynamic and lead to substantial outcomes.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,155.45 down by 14.45 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 6,188.60 and 6,149.30. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were NTPC up by 1.85%, Ambuja Cement up by 1.77%, Grasim up by 1.28%, Cairn up by 1.25% and ACC up by 1.12%.

On the flip side, IndusInd Bank down by 2.76%, Dr Reddy's Laboratories down by 1.74%, Ranbaxy down by 1.52%, Asian Paints down by 1.40% and Lupin down by 1.21% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite rose 1.02%, Jakarta Composite surged 0.47%, KLSE Composite increased 0.10%, Nikkei 225 added 0.67% and Straits Times was up by 0.05%.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted was down 0.26% was the only loser.

Markets in Hong Kong and South Korea are closed for holidays.