Selling pressure intensifies; Nifty below 5,600 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 were on pessimistic mood on slump in the Indian rupee which hit record low against the dollar today. Though, the government has taken many steps to contain the free fall of rupee in the past few days but has met with utter disappointment. Traders were seen selling in Consumer Durables, Metal and Realty sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Wockhardt is trading at lower circuit limit after the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration filed 7 first information reports (FIRs) against the company alleging it sold a banned drug Spasmoproxyvon. Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) shares plunged on interest payment default. Reliance Communications was trading under pressure after foreign brokerage firm Barclays downgraded the company to underweight from neutral, citing expensive valuations after recent outperformance.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading in red while the European markets were trading on mixed note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 5,600 and 18,900 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 532:1531, while 136 scrips remain unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18814.67, down by 367.59 points or 1.92% after trading in a range of 19131.92 and 18814.44. The broader indices too added losses; BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices were trading lower by 2.40% and 1.54% respectively.

All sectoral indices on the BSE were trading in red. Consumer Durables down by 5.61%, Metal down by 3.61%, Realty down by 3.51%, Bankex down by 3.46% and Capital Goods down by 2.62% were the top losing indices.

On the Sensex, 5 stocks were advancing and 25 were declining. The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero Moto Corp up by 1.16%, Wipro up by 0.85%, TCS up by 0.18%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up 0.09% and NTPC up 0.04%. On the flip side, Tata power down by 11.35%, Sterlite Industries down by 5.91%, BHEL down by 5.38%, Tata Steel down by 4.95% and Bharti Airtel down by 4.95% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, foreign direct investment (FDI) into India increased by 24.2 per cent to $3.95 billion in April-May period of 2013 from $3.18 billion received in the same period of previous year. The high FDI inflows came from countries including Singapore, Mauritius, the Netherlands and the US.

The FDI inflows for the fiscal 2012-13 recorded a decline of 38% to $22.42 billion compared to the $35.12 billion inflow in the previous year. Country wise, Mauritius remained at the top spot with maximum FDI of $9.49 billion, followed by UK at $7.87 billion, Singapore at $5.25 billion, Japan at $2.97 billion and United States at $1.11 billion.  

Meanwhile, the government has taken several policy decisions to attract foreign investments including allowing FDI in multi-brand retail and civil aviation sectors and seeking legislative approval for increasing FDI cap in insurance and pension sectors. It has approved 100 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the telecom sector. Meanwhile, India would require around $1 trillion in the 12th five year plan (2012-2017), to overhaul its infrastructure sector such as ports, airports and highways to boost growth. Further, a rise in FDI will help support the rupee, which depreciated from the record low of over 61 against the US dollar.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,569.30, down by 116.10 points or 2.04% after trading in a range of 5,664.90 and 5,569.25.

On Nifty, 7 were advancing and 42 declining while 1 stock remained unchanged, the top gainers of the Nifty were Ambuja Cement up by 2.70%, Power Grid up by 1.82%, Hero Moto Corp up by 1.17%, Reliance Infrastructure up by 0.23% and TCS up by 0.15%. On the flip side, Tata Power down by 11.07%, BPCL down by 7.65%, IndusInd Bank down by 7.52%, Asian Paints down by 5.88% and Ultratech Cement down by 5.48% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng down by 1.34%, Taiwan Weighted down by 1.23%, KLSE Composite down by 0.03%, Straits Times down by 0.67% and Seoul Composite down by 0.50%. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite up by 0.49% and Nikkei 225 was up 1%. Indonesia's Jakarta Composite is closed for a week till August 9 on account of Public Holiday 'Id-ul-Fitr'.

The European markets were trading on a mixed note; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.22%, Germany’s DAX added 0.02% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 lost 0.02%.