February 24: mid-session report

Indian markets taking cues from the other major Asian markets, witnessed another round of heavy selling pressure as it opened for the day. The benchmark indices opened in red and stayed in a kissing distance of 7050, which saw resistance at lower levels. CNX Pharma was the biggest loser dragging down the markets followed by CNX Metals and CNX Bank Nifty.

Nifty was trading down by more than 56 points at 7055 and Sensex by 195 points at 23,216. Both the leading indicators were down 0.8 and 0.7 per cent respectively.

Advance-decline ratio presented a same trend as most of the stocks were trading in red. 1494 scrips were trading in the negative zone, 688 scrips were in the green, however 156 stocks remained unchanged on the NSE.

Top Nifty Gainers: BPCL is leading the gainers list as it was trading up by close to 3 per cent followed by Power Grid, Infosys, Maruti Suzuki and Asian Paints which were up 2.01, 1.27, 0.99 and 0.75 per cent respectively.

Top Nifty Losers: Tata Motors is leading the losers list as it was trading down by more than 3 per cent, closely followed by NTPC, BHEL, Cairn India and Vedanta which declined anywhere between 2.7 per cent to 2.3 per cent.

All the major sectoral indices were trading in red at the time of writing this report except for BSE Oil & Gas and PSU Banking Index. BSE Healthcare (1.92 per cent) and BSE Metals (1.65 per cent) were the top losers in the day’s trade. Followed by BSE Bankex and BSE Auto which were down by about close to 0.70 per cent. BSE Small-Caps also witnessed selling pressure as it was down 0.37 per cent. BSE Mid -Cap index too was trading with the cuts of around 0.70 per cent.

Most of the Asian markets were trading down. Chinese benchmark index CSI300 was an exception as it closed the day in green up 0.52 per cent. Other Asian Indices, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and Japanese Nikkei was down in the range of 1.40 to 0.85 per cent respectively. Australian ASX200 saw major cuts as it was down 2.10 per cent, Korean KOSPI and Singapore’s Straight Times were trading in red with losses.

In commodities, oil prices skidded after Saudi Arabia effectively ruled out production cuts by major producers anytime soon, sending investors into safe-havens such as the yen. Oil prices slid in early Asia trade, extending losses of more than 5 percent overnight. U.S. crude futures were down 1.8 percent at USD 31.29 per barrel, while international benchmark Brent futures were down 1 percent at USD 32.94.

Buzzer: - PNB was buzzing in trade as it was trading down close to 1 per cent to Rs 72.05 on the back willful defaulter list declared by the lender.

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 weak start, with major indices Britain's FTSE 100 and France's CAC 40 and Germany's DAX expected to start the day in red.