Sensex, Nifty hit over 1-week low

Selling pressure intensified as the key benchmark indices hit more than one week low in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:18 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 167.79 points or 0.47% at 35,865.94. The Nifty 50 index was down 53.15 points or 0.48% at 10,996.50. The Sensex was trading below the psychological 36,000 mark. The Nifty was trading below the psychological 11,000 level after flirting with that level in intraday trade.

Investors grew cautious ahead of the Union Budget 2018-2019, which will be presented by the finance minister Arun Jaitley in the parliament tomorrow, 1 February 2018.

The Sensex rose 13.94 points, or 0.04% at the day's high of 36,047.67 in early trade. The index fell 215.32 points, or 0.60% at the day's low of 35,818.41 in mid-afternoon trade, its lowest level since 22 January 2018. The Nifty rose 8.85 points, or 0.08% at the day's high of 11,058.50 in early trade. The index fell 70.35 points, or 0.64% at the day's low of 10,979.30 in mid-afternoon trade, its lowest level since 22 January 2018.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 1.77%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 1.17%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

The broad market depicted weakness. There were more than two losers against every gainer on BSE. 1,918 shares fell and 817 shares rose. A total of 139 shares were unchanged.

Realty shares were mixed. Phoenix Mills (up 3.77%), Peninsula Land (up 3.35%), Mahindra Lifespace Developers (up 2.49%), Prestige Estates Projects (up 1.19%), Parsvnath Developers (up 1.05%), Omaxe (up 0.79%), Sobha (up 0.74%), Oberoi Realty (up 0.46%) and Indiabulls Real Estate (up 0.42%), edged higher. Godrej Properties (down 0.29%), Sunteck Realty (down 0.47%), Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) (down 0.86%), DLF (down 1.02%), Unitech (down 2.76%) and D B Realty (down 3.42%), edged lower.

Most capital goods shares declined. Havells India (down 5.51%), Reliance Defence and Engineering (down 5.18%), Bharat Electronics (down 4.17%), Jindal Saw (down 1.89%), Thermax (down 1.81%), BEML (down 1.59%), Bharat Heavy Electricals (down 1.57%), AIA Engineering (down 1.46%), SKF India (down 1.45%), Lakshmi Machine Works (down 1.39%), GE Power India (down 0.97%), GE T&D India (down 0.56%) and Praj Industries (down 0.19%), edged lower. Suzlon Energy (up 0.34%), Siemens (up 0.57%), Punj Lloyd (up 0.88%) and ABB India (up 1.62%), edged higher.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro was down 0.78%.

The Budget Session of the parliament began on 29 January 2018. The first phase of the budget session of the parliament is being held from 29 January 2018 to 9 February 2018. After a recess, Parliament will meet again from 5 March 2018 to 6 April 2018, as per reports.

The Economic Survey 2017-18 was tabled in Parliament on 29 January 2018. The survey estimated that India's economy should grow between 7% and 7.5% in the 2018/19 (April-March) with exports and private investment set to rebound. The survey estimated that gross domestic product will have grown 6.75% in the current fiscal year ending in March 2018.

Overseas, most European stocks were trading higher as investors monitored the release of economic data and corporate earnings.

Asian shares were mixed as traders studied US President Donald Trump's call for infrastructure investment in his State of the Union address.

China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.21%. A monthly index showed that Chinese manufacturing started the year off at a slower pace as factory activity eased on softer demand, especially for exports. The official purchasing managers' index for January, released on Wednesday, slipped to 51.3, down from December's 51.6 and the weakest reading in eight months. The index is based on a 100-point scale where the 50 mark separates expansion from contraction.

US stocks declined on Tuesday, as heavy losses in health-care and energy shares weighed on the main indexes. Climbing US bond yields, which imply a rise in borrowing costs, also put pressure on stocks.

US Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) commenced its two-day meeting on monetary policy yesterday, 30 January 2018, with a policy decision due later in the global day today, 31 January 2018. The Fed, in a widely expected move, had raised interest rates by 25 basis points (bps) to a range of 1.25-1.5% in its December monetary policy meeting.

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