Indian equity benchmarks continued trading in red in the afternoon session amid profit booking in some large cap stocks including ONGC, Tata Motors and Hindustan Unilever. However, markets paired some early losses on the back of buying witnessed in banking and metal stocks. Investors, sentiments got a support with the latest initiative of the RBI, which further relaxed norms that would encourage banks to raise funds in overseas market. Under the new norms, the central has allowed swap facility for term deposits in dollar denomination ranging from 1-3 years at a concessional rate of 1 percent below the market rate. In the stock specific movement, Maruti Suzuki, L&T and Hindalco were trading up by over 2.5 percent, while, ONGC, Tata Motors and Hindustan Unilever were trading around 2 percent lower on the BSE. The market breadth remained positive, out of 1,990 stocks traded, 1069 stocks advanced while 816 stocks declined on the BSE.
On global front, Asian stocks were trading mixed as global investors booked some profit after recent rallies. Shanghai Composite index was trading higher on the back of strong Chinese economic data for the month of August.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,886.96 down by 110.13 points or 0.55% after trading in a range of 20,055.53 and 19,820.24. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 declines on the index.
The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.12%, while Small cap index was higher by 0.55%.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Capital Goods up by 1.64%, Realty up by 0.96%, Metal up by 0.86%, Healthcare up by 0.48% and IT up by 0.42%.While, FMCG down by 1.41%, Power down by 0.85%, Oil and Gas down by 0.70% and Auto down by 0.30 were the losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.78%, L&T up by 2.74%, Hindalco Inds up by 2.63%, SBI up by 2.18% and Tata Steel up by 1.75%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.62%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.39%, Tata Motors down by 2.21%, NTPC down by 1.91% and ITC down by 1.85% were the only losers on the Sensex.
Meanwhile, amid rising concerns over the deteriorating macroeconomic indicators of the country, Prime Minister's economic advisor C Rangarajan said that India's economy is likely to grow at around 5.5 percent this fiscal on the back of strong farm output. Rangarajan said that agriculture growth will likely get a boost from a strong monsoon and it should grow by 4-5 percent in the current fiscal as against 1.7 percent in the previous fiscal.
Expressing reasons for his optimism on economic growth, Rangarajan said that during the last six months, the government had taken growth- friendly measures and also passed a number of legislations, the impact of which would be felt in the course of the year. Highlighting the need to accelerate completion of infrastructure projects to ensure less intervention in the economic growth path, PMEAC Chairman said that efforts are being put to remove the bottlenecks including land acquisition for projects and environmental concerns among others in completion of infrastructure projects.
At present, domestic economy is struggling with slowdown as all the macro-economic indicators have deteriorated with the current account deficit (CAD) widening to a record high of 4.8 percent of GDP in the FY14. The domestic currency also depreciated to a record low of over 68.50 against the US dollar. Meanwhile, Indian economic growth slowed down to four year low at 4.4 percent in Q1 FY14.
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,866.80 down by 29.95 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 5,913.45 and 5,842.10. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.
The top gainers of the Nifty were PNB up by 3.03%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.79%, L&T up by 2.70%, Hindalco Inds up by 2.59% and Bank of Baroda up by 2.49%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 3.33%, ONGC down by 2.94%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.57%, Tata Motors down by 2.42% and NTPC down by 2.31% were the major losers on the index.
The Asian equity indices were trading mixed; Seoul Composite up by 0.49%, KLSE Composite up by 0.16%, Shanghai Composite up by 0.36%, Taiwan Weighted up by 0.01% and Nikkei 225 was up by 0.01%. While, Jakarta Composite down by 0.41%, Straits Times down by 0.47% and Hang Seng down by 0.28%.
