Weakness prevails amid negative Asian cues

Key benchmarks were hovering in a narrow range with small losses in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:17 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 72.69 points or 0.21% at 34,373.06. The Nifty 50 index was down 25.90 points or 0.24% at 10,556.70. Trading sentiment was dented by weakness in other Asian stocks.

Trading was quite volatile. The Sensex rose 165.04 points, or 0.48% at the day's high of 34,610.79 in early trade, its highest level since 8 February 2018. The index fell 125.50 points, or 0.36% at the day's low of 34,320.25 in afternoon trade. The Nifty rose 49.05 points, or 0.46% at the day's high of 10,631.65 in early trade, its highest level since 8 February 2018. The index fell 45.35 points, or 0.43% at the day's low of 10,537.25 in afternoon trade.

Overseas, European shares opened higher as investors monitor the release of economic data. Most Asian shares reversed early gains and were trading lower ahead of the US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's highly-anticipated testimony later in the global day.

The US market rose on Monday, 26 February 2018, in a broad-based rally led by technology shares. In the latest economic data, US new home sales fell 7.8% in January 2018 from the previous month, to an annualised pace of 593,000, the Commerce Department said.

Investors are focusing on the US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell's congressional testimony on monetary policy and the economy. Powell will testify on the central bank's semi-annual report on monetary policy and the economy on Tuesday, 27 February 2018, before the US House of Representatives' Financial Services Committee.

Closer home, the market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On BSE, 1,703 shares fell and 944 shares rose. A total of 141 shares were unchanged. Breadth was quite strong in early trade.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.53%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.28%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

Most realty shares declined. Oberoi Realty (down 5.09%), Anant Raj (down 2.99%), Peninsula Land (down 2.42%), Unitech (down 2.32%), D B Realty (down 2.31%), DLF (down 1.67%), Parsvnath Developers (down 1.62%), Prestige Estates Projects (down 1.51%), Sunteck Realty (down 1.5%), Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) (down 0.88%), Sobha (down 0.21%), Indiabulls Real Estate (down 0.14%) and Omaxe (down 0.02%), edged lower. Godrej Properties (up 0.17%), Phoenix Mills (up 0.33%) and Mahindra Lifespace Developers (up 0.64%), edged higher.

Power generation stocks were trading lower. Reliance Infrastructure (down 2.41%), Jaiprakash Power Ventures (down 2.4%), Adani Power (down 2.3%), Torrent Power (down 1.93%), GMR Infrastructure (down 1.84%), CESC (down 0.84%), JSW Energy (down 0.55%) and NHPC (down 0.36%), edged lower. Tata Power (up 0.06%) and NTPC (up 1.10%), edged higher.

State-run Coal India was down 0.7%. State-run Power Grid Corporation of India was down 0.77%.

Reliance Power was down 3.18%. Reliance Power's subsidiary, Sasan Power (Sasan) 3,960 megawatts (MW) Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) has received permission from the Ministry of Coal, Government of India vide letter dated 26 February 2018, to increase the coal mining from 17 million tonne per annum to 18 million tonne per annum. Sasan is currently operating over 100% plant load factor (PLF) and this approval will facilitate Sasan to sustain its operations above 100% PLF. The announcement was made during trading hours today, 27 February 2018.

Mercator gained 3.78% after the company announced that its group company has received approval from Directorate General of Hydrocarbons for the field development plan of oil discoveries. The announcement was made during market hours today, 27 February 2018.

Mercator Petroleum (MPL), a Mercator Group company, has announced that Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) has approved the field development plan (FDP) submitted by MPL for its Jyoti-1 & Jyoti-2 oil discoveries in Block CB-ONN-2005/9. DGH has approved the FDP for over 23 million barrels of recoverable oil over the life of field. MPL is also gearing up to commence extended well test (EWT)/trial production at one of the wells in March 2018, as approved by DGH earlier. EWT will help MPL streamline operations prior to full-fledged production which is targeted to commence at the earliest. As per earlier announced schedule, MPL is in process of commencing drilling in the eighth exploratory well. Testing of already drilled well (Jyoti-6) is also underway.

On the macro front, some media reports suggested that the government is planning to ease rules for foreign portfolio investors (FPI), as it seeks to attract more investments into India. As part of the plan, the government will reportedly reduce the time required for FPIs to register in India, introduce a single-window clearance for them and allow foreign banks to trade on behalf of their clients without registering.

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