Weakness persist in markets; Sensex tanks 100 points

Indian equity markets continued trading lower in the late morning session on Thursday amid sustained selling across the counters. The Sensex was down by 111.35 points, while Nifty slipped 30.15 points. The government increasing the import duty on gold to 8% from 6% to rein in a record current-account deficit was unable to boost the markets sentiments. Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Duvvuri Subbarao spoke against a bigger role for the government in financial stability and regulation. According to Subbarao, FSDC should act only as a coordinator among financial regulators to ensure financial sector stability. In currency market, rupee continued to slip against greenback because of heavy dollar demand from importers. On the sectoral front, realty, bank and consumer durables stocks were trading off their earlier low levels, while oil and PSU stocks were mostly trading weak.

On the global front, Asian shares slipped to fresh 2013 lows on Thursday as growing uncertainty on whether the US Federal Reserve will roll back its stimulus this year kept markets on edge, while choppy Japanese equities put pressure on the dollar against the yen. Back home, the market breadth was favoring negative trend; there were 750 shares on the gaining side against 1,097 shares on the losing side, while 138 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,456.87, down by 111.35 points or 0.57% after trading in a range of 19,506.27 and 19,395.32. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.29% and Small cap index was down by 0.18%.

The only gaining sectoral index on the BSE was, Capital Goods up by 0.32%, while Oil and Gas down by 1.15%, Metal down by 1.10%, PSU down by 1.01%, Realty down by 0.89% and Healthcare down by 0.82% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 1.24%, HDFC up by 1.14%, L&T up by 0.93%, Wipro up by 0.81% and ICICI Bank up by 0.24%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel was down by 2.98%, Hindalco was down by 1.90%, Gail India was down by 1.82%, NTPC was down by 1.56% and Tata Steel was down by 1.55% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, as per the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), counterfeit and smuggled products and tax evasion caused an annual sales loss of Rs 100,000 crore to the Indian industry. The FICCI report, releasing on the World anti-counterfeiting day, states that the sale of such products and tax evasion in seven key sectors that include auto, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG-personal goods and packaged food), alcohol and tobacco resulted in a loss of Rs 26,190 crore to the exchequer in 2012. 

The FICCI study on the ‘socio-economic impact of counterfeiting, smuggling and tax evasion in seven key industry sectors’ has revealed that the annual sales loss to industry due to circulation of fake products is at Rs.72,969 crore. Further, the FICCI statement said that a rough estimate based on limited assessment demonstrates a loss of Rs 29,307 crore from pharmaceutical and other FMCG sectors.

The government on its part said that consumer awareness is the key to check the sale of counterfeit and smuggled products which are potentially harmful to the personal health and financial stability of the country.  

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,893.70 down by 30.15 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 5,905.30 and 5,869.50. There were 10 stocks advancing against 40 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 1.38%, HCL Tech up by 1.27%, HDFC up by 1.24%, L&T up by 0.90%, and Axis Bank up by 0.71%.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.63%, GAIL down by 2.14%, Hindalco down by 1.90%, Ranbaxy down by 1.84% and Lupin down by 1.60% were the major losers on the index.

Asian equity indices were trading in red; Hang Seng declined 1.02%, KLSE Composite slipped 0.18%, Straits Times tumbled 1.62%, Nikkei 225 declined by 0.85% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 1.02%.

Stock markets in China, Indonesia and South Korea remained shut on account of public holidays.