Key benchmarks remain weak ahead of expiry

Key benchmarks have extended losses in late morning trades taking cues from other global peers and as sentiment remained bearish after the Reserve Bank of India's recent measures to support rupee. Meanwhile, investors are cautious ahead of the expiry of July derivative contracts, while a weak trend in the Asian region was dampening the trading sentiment. Besides, investors were also cautious about corporate earnings from blue-chip companies. On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading lower; Japanese markets declined over half a percent, led by over 6% fall in shares of the camera maker Canon after it lowered sales forecasts by 10 per cent late Wednesday. Back home, the traders were seen piling up positions in Oil & Gas, Auto and IT, while selling was seen in Power, Capital Goods and Power sector. In sector specific developments, Metal counter edged lower after a private survey showed manufacturing weakened further in July in China.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading near the psychological 5,950 and 20,000 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was showing negative trend with advances to declines in the ratio of 681:954. The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20045.45, down by 45.23 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 20110.81 and 19910.08. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 declines on the index. The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.51% and Small cap index lost 0.25%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 0.40%, Auto up by 0.32%, IT up by 0.30% and TECK up by 0.24% while Power down by 1.16%, Capital Goods down by 0.92%, Power down by 0.80%, Metal down by 0.70% and Health Care down by 0.38%were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 4.54%, ONGC up by 1.41%, HDFC up by 1.13%, Jindal Steel up by 0.84%, and Infosys up by 0.74%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever was down by 2.87% , Tata Power was down by 2.81%, BHEL was down by 2.18%, Sun Pharma was down by 1.33% and  Hindalco Industries was down by 1.11%, and were the top losers on the Sensex

Meanwhile, at a time when the RBI’s different measures are making lending tough, worsening the situation of one of the most rate sensitive auto sector,  Heavy Industries Ministry has said that it will soon take up the issue with the Prime Minister and seek stimulus package to revive the sector.

Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Praful Patel, stressing the need to take immediate steps for arresting the decline in auto sales has said that “I would say that we will look at all the ways and means and talk to the Prime Minister and also the Finance Minister (in this regard)... There is no reason why we cannot see that auto industry gets a stimulus”. Patel further stated that manufacturing activities should be increased in the country,but high interest rates impact the financing of big projects and manufacturing competitiveness.

Earlier, the Automobile sector industry body, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) too had sought a stimulus package for the automobile sector from the government after car sales fell for record eight months in a row in June, declining 9 percent. Sales of vehicles across all categories dropped 5.1 percent to 14,07,767 units in June from 14,83,443 units a year earlier. This has forced domestic car manufacturers to cut down production numbers and lay off non-critical employees.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,974.65 down by 15.85 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 5,990.65 and 5,958.30. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 4.78%, IDFC up by 1.53%, ONGC up by 1.44%, Cairn up by 1.20% and HDFC up by 1.03%. On the flip side, Ambuja Cements down by 12.79%, JP Associate down by 5.50%, ACC down by 4.34%, UltraTech Cement down by 3.25% and Tata Power down by 2.87% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite dipped 6.03 points or 0.30% to 2,027.30, Hang Seng declined 41.41 points or 0.19% to 21,927.52, Jakarta Composite contracted 40.26 points or 0.85% to 4,677.85, Nikkei 225 decreased 182.24 points or 1.24% to 14,549.04, Straits Times shed 28.92 points or 0.88% to 3,245.84 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 28.62 points or 0.35% to 8,176.53.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite rose 0.25 points or 0.01% to 1,810.25 and Seoul Composite was up by 0.14 points or 0.01% to 1,912.42.