Indian equities add losses; Bankex, Realty 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 were on pessimistic note after Fitch Ratings cut its growth forecast for India in 2013-14 to 4.8%, from its earlier estimate of 5.7% made in June and 7% in September. Investors were also pressurized amid looming fear of another hike in repo rates by the Reserve Bank of India. Traders were seen piling positions in Consumer Durables, IT and TECK stocks, while selling was witnessed in Bankex, Realty and Capital Goods sector stocks. In scrip specific development, banking stocks like SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Yes Bank, PNB and Union Bank of India were trading deep in red continuing pressure after Reserve Bank of India hiked repo rates on September 20. Hectic activity was witnessed in Bajaj Auto shares after foreign brokerage firm Credit Suisse placed an outperform rating on the stock and set a higher target price. Hotel Leela Venture was trading in green after shareholders of the company approved a preferential issue of shares of up to Rs 100 crore to Rockfort Estate Developers, a promoter group entity. Strides Arcolab was trading in green on reports that the company may pay out Rs 800 per share to shareholders post the Agila deal.

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 5,900 and 19,900 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative in the ratio of 818:1268 while 141 scrips remained unchanged. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19875.82 down by 387.89 points or 1.91% after trading in a range of 20199.81 and 19837.58. There were only 5 stocks advancing against 24 declines while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.17% while Small cap index also down by 0.60%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 2.99%, IT up by 0.94% and TECK up by 0.36% while Bankex down by 4.41%, Realty down by 4.15%, Capital Goods down by 2.87%, PSU down by 2.44% and Oil & Gas down by 2.20% remained the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 1.62%, Sesa Goa up by 1.49%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.95%, Infosys up by 0.77% and TCS up by 0.20%. On the flip side, SBI down by 5.05%, ICICI Bank down by 5.04%, ONGC down by 4.84%, Maruti Suzuki down by 4.01% and Tata Power down by 3.71% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, as per the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), Indian non-oil trade deficit in the current financial year is likely to be much lower at $65-72 billion as against the $81.8 billion in 2012-13 on the back of curbs on gold imports. In order to check the country’s gold imports, the government had recently hiked gold import rates to 15% from 10% earlier and central bank also introduced 80/20 rule under which 20% of all gold imports has to be re-exported. Indian gold imports declined to $0.65 billion in August as compared to $2.9 billion in the previous month and a record $8.4 billion in May. 

Indian non-oil imports during August, 2013 were estimated at $21.96 billion, which was 10.4% lower than non-oil imports of $24.50 million in August, 2012. Non-oil imports during April-August, 2013-14 were valued at $128.11 billion, which was 0.3% lower than the level of such imports valued at $128.46 billion in April-August, 2012-13. However, industry body, Assocham said that the oil trade deficit may go up in the current fiscal because of continuing pressure on the crude oil prices in the international markets. Oil imports during April-August, 2013-14 were recorded at $69.68 billion, which was 5.60% higher than the oil imports of $65.98 billion in the corresponding period last year.

In order to boost Indian oil and gas sector, Assocham expressed the need of a holistic energy policy so that a lot of investment in the country will be channeled in the exploration of both crude and natural gas. It further suggested that policies governing oils pricing mechanisms, to be paid to the contractors, should be fixed in a transparent manner. Further, it mentioned that centre and state governments should reduce over-dependence on the oil sector for raising taxation revenue.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 5,879.55 down by 132.55 points or 2.20% after trading in a range of 5,989.40 and 5,872.95. There were 9 stocks advancing against 41 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were HCL Tech up by 1.99%, Sesa Goa up by 1.60%, Ranbaxy up by 1.48%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.13% and Infosys up by 0.83%. On the flip side, DLF down by 7.06%, Bank of Baroda down by 6.57%, PNB down by 6.50%, Axis Bank down by 6.35% and JP Associates down by 5.37% were the major losers on the index.

The most of the Asian equity indices were trading mostly in red; Straits Times down by 0.76%, Jakarta Composite down by 1.01%, KLSE Composite down by 0.29% and Hang Seng down by 0.56% while, Shanghai Composite up by 1.33%, Seoul Composite up by 0.19% and Taiwan Weighted up by 1.02%. Japanese market was closed today on occasion of ‘Autumn Equinox Day’.

The European markets were trading on a mixed note; France’s CAC 40 was up 0.26%, Germany’s DAX added 0.19% and UK’s FTSE 100 dropped 0.04%.