Market continue trading weak; Nifty slips below 6500

Indian markets continue to trade in red in noon session, though the losses are limited and there are attempt from various counters to pull the markets back in green. Although, the initial frenzied selling by funds and retailers has stopped but the weakness in the global markets was still weighing on the sentiments amid lack of any positive triggers. IT stocks have bounced back after their sharp fall in last session supported by the weakness in rupee and value buying by the traders in the sector. There is somberness in the Oil & Gas sector since morning, mainly led by the PSU oil marketing companies (OMCs) on reports that the finance ministry wants oil marketing companies to absorb a much higher share of under recoveries this fiscal. It was reported that the OMCs will have to absorb as much as Rs 5,000 crore as against Rs 900 crore in FY13. BPCL was down by over 3%, HPCL was down by 3% while the IOC was down by over 4%.The upstream companies like ONGC and Oil India too were trading lower despite them keeping untouched after their collective buying of 10 percent in IOC.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 21767.40 down by 64.46 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 21853.25 and 21727.06. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index.

The broader indices were showing mixed trend, slowly paring their early gains; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.02%, while Small cap index gained 0.30%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on BSE were, IT up by 2.12%, TECK up by 1.79%, Consumer Durables was up by 1.13% and Healthcare was up by 0.47%. On the other hand Capital Goods down by 1.76%, Realty down by 1.31%, Power down by 1.07%, Bankex down by 1.07% and Auto down by 0.78%, were the two losers on the sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 2.89%, Wipro was up by 2.31%, Infosys was up by 1.97%, HUL was up by 1.78% and Sun Pharma was up by 1.26%. On the flip side, Gail India down by 3.60%, BHEL down by 2.56%, Coal India down by 2.22%, L&T down by 1.94% and ITC down by 1.63% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) has suggested the Indian IT firms to diversify business in countries including China, Japan, South Korea and Africa instead of keeping focus on the US market. Admitting that domestic market has remained sluggish for industry with stagnant growth in the last two years, Nasscom President R Chandrashekar highlighted that it has become imperative for domestic IT firms to prepare country-specific strategies to tap the Asian and African markets. 

Nasscom projects Indian IT-BPO industry growth at 13-15 percent for 2014-15 and exports at same rate of 13-15 percent from $86 billion for 2013-14 to $97-99 billion by the next fiscal year. The size of the IT-BPO industry would grow from $108 billion in 2012-13 to $118 billion in 2013-14 with a stagnant $32-billion domestic market contribution.

R Chandrashekar further added that there is a downturn in the domestic market, generating a growth of only 10% in rupee terms. Further, political uncertainty, slowdown in policy and decision-making and macro- economic issues are the major challenges that the IT-BPO industry is facing. Meanwhile, in order to boost domestic IT market, Nasscom is focusing on some areas that needed immediate attention. On global front, Nasscom is stepping up efforts to improve business ties with China amid expectations of increasing IT spending by the Chinese government in order to make a major dent in the Chinese information technology (IT) market.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,499.15 down by 24.90 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 6,523.65 and 6,488.50. There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were TCS up by 2.97%, Wipro up by 2.31%, Infy up by 1.96%, HUL up by 1.90% and SunPharma was up by 1.23%. On the flip side, Gail down by 3.56%, DLF down by 3.28%, BPCL down by 3.05%, BHEL down by 3.02% and Ambuja Cements down by 5.35% were the top losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite was down by 0.80%, Hang Seng plunged by 1.73%, Jakarta Composite slumped by 2.17%, KLSE Composite was lower by 0.18%, Nikkei 225 declined by 1.65%, Straits Times lost 0.72%, Seoul Composite declined by 0.94% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 1.06%.