Weak market breadth

Key benchmarks hit fresh intraday low in morning trade, tracking negative cues from other Asian stocks. At 10:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 65.38 points or 0.20% at 33,110.62. The Nifty 50 index was down 31.75 points or 0.31% at 10,163.40.

After opening higher, key indices slipped into negative terrain in morning trade. The Sensex rose 99.79 points, or 0.30% at the day's high of 33,275.79 in early trade. The index fell 86.93 points, or 0.26% at the day's low of 33,089.07 in morning trade, its lowest level since 8 March 2018. The Nifty rose 29.40 points, or 0.29% at the day's high of 10,224.55 in early trade. The index fell 37.65 points, or 0.37% at the day's low of 10,157.50 in morning trade, its lowest level since 8 March 2018.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 1.03%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.95%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned weak in morning trade. On BSE, 1,550 shares fell and 616 shares rose. A total of 95 shares were unchanged.

Metal shares tumbled. Steel Authority of India (down 5.77%), NMDC (down 5%), Hindustan Copper (down 2.59%), Jindal Steel & Power (down 2.06%), JSW Steel (down 1.74%), Tata Steel (down 1.59%), Hindustan Zinc (down 0.92%), Hindalco Industries (down 0.83%), Vedanta (down 0.44%) and National Aluminium Company (down 0.38%), edged lower.

FMCG shares were mixed. Tata Global Beverages (down 2.53%), Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care (down 1.17%), Jyothy Laboratories (down 1.08%), Britannia Industries (down 1.06%), GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (down 0.49%), Colgate Palmolive (India) (down 0.28%), Nestle India (down 0.21%) and Marico (down 0.05%), edged lower. Dabur India (up 0.25%), Godrej Consumer Products (up 0.38%), Bajaj Corp (up 0.39%) and Hindustan Unilever (up 1.15%), edged higher.

Gateway Distriparks fell 1.86% to Rs 190. Morgan Stanley offloaded 10.06 lakh shares of Gateway Distriparks at Rs 201 per share in a bulk deal on the NSE on Friday, 16 March 2018. Promoter Prem Kishan Gupta bought 10 lakh shares. Prem Kishan Gupta controlled 0.76% stake end December 2017.

On the macro front, India's current account deficit (CAD) was reported at $13.5 billion (2% of GDP) in Q3 of 2017-18, up from $8 billion (1.4% of GDP) in Q3 of 2016-17 and $7.2 billion (1.1% of GDP) in the preceding quarter. The widening of the CAD on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis was primarily on account of a higher trade deficit ($44.1 billion) brought about by a larger increase in merchandise imports relative to exports.

Overseas, most Asian stocks were trading lower as caution gripped investors ahead of the US Federal Reserve policy meeting later in the week. US stocks ended modestly higher on Friday, 16 March 2018, with the S&P 500 breaking a four-day losing streak.

US industrial production jumped 1.1% in February, the largest increase in four months. In a separate report, the Commerce Department said housing starts declined 7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.236 million units in February. Further, the University of Michigan consumer-sentiment index rose to 102 in March from 99.7 in February.

The US Federal Reserve's two-day monetary policy meeting is scheduled on March 20-21. Strengthening labor market and a steady increase in price pressures could pave the way for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in upcoming meeting. The US central bank has forecast three rate increases for this year, but there are also expectations that it will raise its projection to four hikes at the meeting.

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