Weak trade prevails; Realty, Bankex drag benchmarks

Indian equities added losses to continue weak trade in the late afternoon session on account of selling in front line counters and taking cues from weak global counterparts. The sentiments turned pessimistic on RBI’s move of hiking key policy rates by 25 basis points and putting its focus squarely back on managing inflation and the fiscal deficit. Traders were seen piling positions in Consumer Durables and IT stocks, while selling was witnessed in Realty, Bankex and Capital Goods sector stocks. In scrip specific development, Ranbaxy Laboratories was trading under pressure on reports that US-based Ohm Laboratories, the company’s facility in America, is under the surveillance of the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). Clariant Chemicals (India) is trading in green after the company received board’s approval to sell its three units for Rs 209.15 crore. HCL Technologies was trading firm after Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) cleared proposals of the company to increase FII investment limit.

On the global front, most of 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 6,000 and 20,200 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 685:1471 while 104 scrips remained unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 20129.33, down by 517.31 points or 2.51% after trading in a range of 20,677.99 and 20,051.43. There were only 4 stocks advancing against 26 declines on the index.

The broader indices were too trading in red; the BSE Mid and Small cap indices were trading lower by 1.62% and 1.05% respectively.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.46% and IT up by 0.24%, while Realty down by 6.63%, Bankex down by 5.59%, Capital Goods down by 4.15%, PSU down by 2.75% and Metal down by 2.54% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharmaceuticals up by 1.52%, Wipro up by 1.36%, Gail India up by 1.26% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 0.58%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 6.84%, L&T down by 5.65%, SBI down by 4.96%, Hindustan Unilever down by 4.95% and Hindalco Industries down by 4.31% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Indian banking industry's deposits increased by 14.2 percent to Rs 98.63 lakh crore in the January-March quarter, 2013. The nationalized banks accounted for the highest share of 52.4 per cent of the aggregate deposits in the total deposits during the period followed by the State Bank of India and its associates having 22 per cent share and new private sector banks represent 13.6 per cent share in deposits. Meanwhile, the share of old private sector banks, foreign banks, and regional rural banks in aggregate deposits was 5.1 percent, 4 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively. The Banking Industry had reported 13.8 percent deposits growth in the same period of previous year.

Meanwhile, the growth in credit slowed down to 15.1 per cent at Rs 55.42 lakh crore in the reported quarter from 17.3 per cent a year ago. In gross bank credit, nationalized banks accounted for the highest share at 51 percent followed by SBI and its associates having 22.7 percent share and new private sector banks consist 14 percent share. Meanwhile, old private sector banks, foreign banks and regional rural banks had relatively lower shares in the gross bank credit at 5 percent, 4.9 percent and 2.5 percent in January-March quarter respectively.

Indian banking industry credit-to-deposit ratio stood at 78.1 percent in March 2013. The contraction in industry credit growth was mainly due to the prevailing economic slowdown, hurting domestic demand. Indian economic growth slowed down to decade low of 5 percent in the previous fiscal. Meanwhile, banks have also stayed away from aggressive lending due to concerns over asset quality and a rise in non-performing assets.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,958.65, down by 156.90 points or 2.57% after trading in a range of 6,130.95 and 5,932.85. There were only 8 stocks advancing against 42 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were HCL Tech up by 3.91%, Lupin up by 1.79%, Gail India up by 1.74%, Sun Pharma up by 1.62% and Power Grid up by 1.29%. On the flip side, DLF down by 11.17%, IndusInd Bank down by 8.38%, IDFC down by 7.80%, PNB down by 7.69% and ICICI Bank down by 6.80% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Jakarta Composite down by 1.79%, Nikkei 225 down by 0.16% and Straits Times down by 0.30% while KLSE Composite was up by 0.62%.

South Korean markets are closed from September 18 for the rest of the week for the Chuseok holidays. Trade will resume on September 23. Shanghai Composite and Taiwan Weighted remained closed on account of Mid-autumn Festival. Hang Seng is closed on account of public holiday.

The European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC 40 was down 0.15%, Germany’s DAX lost 0.02% and UK’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.01%.