February 23: mid-session report

The Indian markets witnessed selling pressure as it opened for the day. The benchmark indices opened in red and continued its downward trajectory as the day progressed. Taking cues from other Asian peers, the markets extended losses, dragged down by FMCG, banking and financials and technology stocks. Metals and select auto stocks outperformed in Tuesday’s sessions.

Nifty was trading down by more than 75 points at 7161 and Sensex by 225 points at 23,560. Both the leading indicators were down 1.06 and 0.96 per cent respectively.

The advance-decline ratio showed the same trend as most of the stocks traded in red. Roughly 1499 scrips were trading in the negative territory, 686 scrips were in the green, however 130 stocks remained unchanged on the NSE.

Top Nifty Gainers: ONGC is leading the gainers list as it was trading up by close to 1 per cent followed by Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy’s Lab, Infosys and Maruti Suzuki which were up 0.86, 0.39, 0.27 and 0.26 per cent respectively.

Top Nifty Losers: PNB is leading the losers list down more than 3 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank, HUL, SBI and Idea Cellular which are down anywhere between 2.7 per cent to 2 per cent.

All the major sectoral indices were trading in red at the time of writing this report. Metals and automobile also pared down there gains to trade in the negative territory. BSE Bankex was the top loser as it was down 2.15 per cent. Followed by BSE Capital Goods Index and BSE FMCG which were trading down by 1.95 and 1.40 per cent respectively. BSE Small-Caps also witnessed selling as it was down 0.90 per cent. BSE Mid -Cap index too was trading in the negative territory by 1.10 per cent.

Most of the Asian markets pared down there gains in the second half of the session as all major indices closed the day in red. Chinese benchmark index CSI300 closed down 49.11 points i.e. down 1.57 per cent. Two major Asian Indices Japanese Nikkei and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down in the range of 0.40 and 0.10 per cent respectively. Australian ASX200 was also down 0.43 per cent, Korean KOSPI and Singapore’s Straight Times were trading in red with minor losses.

In commodities, oil markets jumped as much as 7 per cent on Monday as speculation about falling U.S. shale output fed the notion that crude prices may be bottoming after their 20-month collapse. But they retreated on Tuesday on concern that any cuts to U.S. production may be countered by rising output from Iran.

Buzzer: - NTPC was buzzing in trade as it was trading down 2.2 per cent to Rs 124 on the back OFS (offer for sale) as government looks to divest 5 per cent and set Rs 122 as the floor price for the issue.

In second half it seems unlikely that market will turn into green as it would take further cues from European stocks which are also poised for a bleak start, with analyst expecting Britain's FTSE 100 and France's CAC 40 to start the day about 0.6 per cent lower, and Germany's DAX to open down about 0.5 per cent.