Sensex trades 300 points lower; Bajaj Auto, Axis Bank fall

Mumbai: After gaining 250 points in the morning trade, the 30-share benchmark S&P BSE Sensex erased all the gains and was trading over 300 points lower on Friday, led by losses in the shares of capital goods, banking, auto, pharma, realty and energy companies.

At 12.08pm, the Sensex was trading lower by 1%, or 309 points, at 28,625, while the 50-share CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange fell 1.06%, or 92.75 points, to 8,680.

Among the gainers, Coal India Ltd (CIL) rose 0.6% to Rs.367 while Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) gained 0.5% to Rs.313.50.

Among the losers, Bajaj Auto Ltd fell 2.4% to Rs.2,027.30 while Axis Bank Ltd declined 2.3% to Rs.571.50.

All the sectoral indices were trading lower. The BSE capital goods was the top sectoral loser, down 1.6% followed by BSE Bankex, which was down 1.4%. BSE auto and FMCG were down 1.3% each. BSE healthcare, IT, power, realty were down 1% each. BSE Teck, consumer durbales, oil and gas were down 0.8% each.

Stocks of companies with insurance operations erased most of the gains of the morning sessions and was trading mixed on profit booking. Housing Development Finance Corp. Ltd fell 0.4% to Rs.1,328.15, ICICI Bank Ltd fell 1% to Rs.334.70, Religare Enterprises Ltd rose 0.3% to Rs.384, Max India Ltd fell 0.2% to Rs.487.10, Reliance Capital Ltd rose 0.9% to Rs.494.60, Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd rose 0.9% to Rs.1,685, Bajaj Finserv Ltd gained 1% to Rs.1,505.15, Exide Industries Ltd fell 0.2% to Rs.191.90.

DLF Ltd was trading at Rs.148.30 on BSE, down 0.4% from previous close ahead of Securities Appellate Tribunal Order due later on Friday. SAT will announce its final verdict on DLF’s plea against the Securities and Exchange Board of India ruling which barred DLF and its top executives from accessing the capital market and dealing in securities for three years.

Natco Pharma Ltd rose 5.8% to Rs.2,176.25 after the company said in a notice to BSE that it has govt approval from the national drug regulator for generic sofosbuvir tablets that are used to treat hepatitis C.

Finolex Cables Ltd rose 13.4% to Rs.303.70 after the company said in a notice to BSE that its net profit for the December quarter rose 56.1% to Rs.38.19 crore as compared to Rs.24.47 crore a year ago.

Cairn India Ltd fell 1.2% to Rs.230.90 after the company said in a note to the stock exchanges Cairn India said that it has “received an order from the Income Tax Department today for an alleged failure to deduct withholding tax on alleged capital gains arising during 2006-07 in the hands of Cairn UK Holdings Limited, our erstwhile parent company, a subsidiary of Cairn Energy Plc.”

On Thursday, the government issued Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data which slowed to 2.6% in January from a revised 3.2% a month ago because of lower electricity generation and manufacturing output. Provisional IIP data in December released earlier had shown a growth rate of 1.7%. Retail inflation accelerated to 5.37% in February from 5.19% in the previous month because of higher food and fuel prices.

In a major boost to the government’s reform agenda, the Rajya Sabha on Thursday gave the go-ahead to the insurance bill, raising the ceiling for foreign investment in the sector.

Since the beginning of this year, the Sensex has gained 5%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $5.2 billion from local equity and $6.16 billion from bond markets.

US stocks rose in a broad rally on Thursday, bouncing back from two days of losses, helped by weaker retail sales that paused the dollar’s recent rally and tempered the outlook for interest rates, Reuters reported. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.5%, Nasdaq Composite rose 0.89% and S&P 500 was up 1.3%.

Asian stocks rose, following a rebound in US shares, after an unexpected drop in American retail sales strengthened the case for keeping interest rates lower for longer in the world’s largest economy, Bloomberg reported. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng up 0.22%, China’s Shanghai Composite up 0.71% while Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average was up 1.4%.