Benchmarks add losses; Consumer Durables, Auto drag

Indian equity markets added losses to continue weak trade in the late afternoon session on account of selling pressure in front line counters and taking cues from weak global markets. The sentiments were on cautious note after JPMorgan downgraded Indian markets to ‘neutral’ from ‘overweight’ on account of weak rupee, faltering economic growth and reversal of flows. The rupee fell to fresh lows of 64.11 on dollar buying by FIIs and importers, but some selling by state owned banks has helped rupee recover a tad. Traders were seen piling position in Metal, Realty and Bankex stocks while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables, Auto and Health Care sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Future Retail was trading in red after foreign brokerage firm JP Morgan stated that it is underweight on the stock and cut target price. Hindustan Zinc was trading firm on reports that legal hurdles surrounding divestment in the firm have been cleared. Jaiprakash Power Ventures was trading firm as the company is looking to sell stake in its two hydro power projects in order to cut down its debt.

On the global front, all the Asian markets were trading in red while the European markets were too trading on pessimistic note. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 5,400 and 18,200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 970:1077, while 130 scrips remain unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 18150.00 down by 157.52 points or 0.86% after trading in a range of 18306.46 and 17970.98. There were only 7 stocks advancing against 22 declines while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.85%, while Small cap index inched lower by 0.05%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 3.42%, Realty up by 0.79% and Bankex up by 0.31% while, Consumer Durables down by 3.36%, Auto down by 2.34%, Health Care down by 1.73%, TECK down by 1.58% and IT down by 1.49% were the top losers indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sterlite Industries up by 8.98%, Tata Steel up by 3.10%, ICICI Bank up by 1.28%, SBI up by 1.01% and Jindal Steel up by 0.68%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 4.49%, Tata Motors down by 4.19%, Sun Pharma down by 2.88%, Wipro down by 2.59% and Bharti Airtel down by 2.55% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, in order to boost India’s infrastructure sector, the government has cleared 28 big-ticket investment projects worth Rs 1.1 lakh cr, which have been stuck for years for want of numerous government clearances. After intensive project-wise discussions with ministries, special project monitoring group headed by cabinet secretary Ajit Seth has managed to secure these clearances for mega investment projects.

These infrastructure projects include 18 power projects with a generation capacity of 15,636 mw, four highway projects worth Rs 4,400 crore, and Rs 1,200-crore steel plant in Odisha. Further, the coal ministry has also agreed to sign fuel supply agreements for all these projects by August 31. Three railway projects in poorly connected states such as Mizoram, Assam and Chhattisgarh, with an investment outlay of over Rs 7,100 crore, have also got green signal. Moreover, the government also cleared Delhi airport aerocity project worth Rs 12,000 crore and Petroleum distillation units, being set up by Bharat Petroleum, worth Rs 1,419 crore.

The government has identified the development of infrastructure as a most crucial one to boost the economy’s growth. Recently, it has set up the Cabinet Committee on Investments (CCI) to clear the bottlenecks holding back mega infrastructure projects. However, the committee met just once a month and didn't have the bandwidth to resolve ground-level issues holding up private sector investments.  Thereby, the government set up special cell, which is  meant to supplement CCI's efforts in cases where the problem can be involved by way of discussions between ministries also acts as the CCI's secretariat and has now been tasked with monitoring the progress of projects cleared earlier by CCI. Meanwhile, for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), the government has set the $1-trillion investment target for the infrastructure sector.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,370.20 down by 44.55 points or 0.82% after trading in a range of 5,417.80 and 5,306.35. There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sesa Goa up by 14.25%, JP Associate up by 4.21%, Tata Steel up by 3.22%, DLF up by 2.08% and Kotak Bank up by 1.22%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 4.56%, Tata Motors down by 4.16%, ACC down by 3.25%, HCL Tech down by 3.22% and Sun Pharma down by 2.88% were the major losers on the index.

The Asian equity indices were trading in red; Straits Times down by 1.69%, Hang Seng dropped 2.20%, Jakarta Composite down by 3.61%, KLSE Composite down by 2.00%, Seoul Composite down by 1.55%, Taiwan Weighted down by 0.86%, Shanghai Composite down by 0.62% and Nikkei 225 was down by 2.63%.

The European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC 40 was down 1.26%, Germany’s DAX lost 1.23% and the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.76%.