Benchmarks add losses; Nifty below 5,700 mark

Indian equity markets added losses to continue weak trade hovering near the lowest point of the day in the late afternoon session on account of selling in front line counters. The sentiments on the street were on pessimistic mood due to lack of investor confidence, which was largely dented by rupee’s volatility and current state of economy. Traders were seen piling position in Consumer Durables, IT and TECK stocks while selling was witnessed in Metal, Realty and Power sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Financial Technologies (FTIL) was trading under pressure for second consecutive session after the National Spot Exchange (NSEL), promoted by FTIL, announced suspension of trade on all its one-day forward contracts except for E-series products on Wednesday night and deferred payments on client trades. Power Grid Corporation of India was trading in red after the company stated that it would issue 694.5 million new shares in a secondary offering to raise funds.

On the global front, all the Asian markets were trading in green while the European markets were too trading on optimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 5,700 and 19,200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 652:1415, while 122 scrips remain unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19153.99, down by 163.20 points or 0.84% after trading in a range of 19,451.70 and 19153.99. There were 5 stocks advancing against 25 declines on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading lower by 0.76% and 1.03% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Consumer Durable up by 4.90%, IT up by 1.19% and TECK up by 0.72%. While Metal down by 4.00%, Realty down by 3.96%, Power down by 3.55%, PSU down by 3.08% and FMCG down by 1.50% were the top losers indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 1.59%, Wipro up by 1.30%, Infosys up by 1.12%, RIL up by 0.82% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.22%. On the flip side, Jindal Steel down by 6.45%, Coal India was down by 5.62%, Sterlite Industries was down by 4.98%, Hindustan Unilever down by 3.72% and Tata Power down by 3.36% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Indian engineering exports fell by 7 percent in the April-June quarter in the current fiscal mainly due to the slowdown in the US and European Union markets. The chairman of Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) Aman Chadha said that owing to the prevailing slowdown in the US and European countries, it has become imperative to search new markets for engineering exports. The US and Europe together account for around 60 per cent of the country’s total engineering exports. 

Disappointed over the Reserve Bank of India's decision of not undertaking rate cuts in its monetary policy, EEPC’s chairman said that we need to make Indian exports competitive in tough global markets where we face competition from aggressive exports from China and other emerging economies. Engineering goods exports which include exports of goods, transport equipment, capital goods, other machinery/equipment and light engineering products like castings, forgings and fasteners, constitute around one-fourth of the country's total merchandise shipments.

While, the government and the exporters are making renewed efforts to diversify and explore new markets, also trying to increase share of exports in Latin America's Pacific Alliance which holds good prospects for Indian engineering products. Recently, domestic exporters have found new markets in Africa and Latin America, but remained cautious due to reasons such as fear of payment default. Meanwhile, in order to boost the country’s export, the government, in the annual foreign trade policy, had announced a slew of measures include sops for Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and extension of the popular the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme to all sectors to boost shipments.     

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,673.55, down by 54.30 points or 0.95% after trading in a range of 5,761.85 and 5,673.55. There were 12 stocks advancing against 38 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Ranbaxy Laboratories up by 5.37%, Ambuja Cement up by 2.99%, Cairn India up by 2.04%, Lupin up by 1.97% and ACC up by 1.86%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 11.96%, DLF down by 8.60%, JP Associates down by 7.70%, Jindal Steel down by 6.99% and BPCL down by 6.63% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in green; Shanghai Composite up by 0.02%, Hang Seng added 0.46%, Jakarta Composite up by 0.31%, Nikkei 225 up by 3.29%, Seoul Composite up by 0.14%, Taiwan Weighted was up by 0.54%, KLSE Composite up by 0.17% and Straits Times up by 0.23%.

The European markets were trading in green; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.11%, Germany’s DAX added 0.14% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 jumped 0.02%.