Selling continued unabated as key benchmark indices slipped further and hit fresh intraday low in early afternoon trade. At 12:18 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 222.90 points or 0.76% at 29,198.50. The Nifty 50 index was currently down 71.60 points or 0.79% at 9,036.40. Weakness in other Asian indices put pressure on domestic shares.
The Sensex fell 228.74 points, or 0.78% at the day's low of 29,192.66 in early afternoon trade, its lowest level since 22 March 2017. The index fell 0.70 points at the day's high of 29,420.70 in early trade. The Nifty fell 75.05 points, or 0.82% at the day's low of 9,032.95 in early afternoon trade, its lowest level since 22 March 2017. The index fell 13.15 points, or 0.14% at the day's high of 9,094.85 in early trade.
Back home, among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was currently down 0.27%. The BSE Small-Cap index was currently down 0.13%. The decline in both these indices was lower than the Sensex's decline in percentage terms.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1,406 shares fell and 1,053 shares rose. A total of 202 shares were unchanged.
Auto shares edged lower. Tata Motors (down 1.59%), Ashok Leyland (down 1.43%), Escorts (down 1.18%), Hero MotoCorp (down 1.09%), Eicher Motors (down 0.97%), Bajaj Auto (down 0.75%), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 0.31%) and Maruti Suzuki India (down 0.16%), edged lower. TVS Motor Company was up 0.30%.
Engineering and construction major L&T was down 0.28% at Rs 1,547. The company announced during trading hours today, 27 March 2017, that the building and factories business segment of the construction arm of L&T has won orders worth Rs 2490 crore. A mega order has been bagged from a premier government organization for the construction of hospital building, a medicaL institute, a nursing college, a school for paramedics, an auditorium, hosteLs, residential quarters along with associated works, in New Delhi. Also, a design and build order has been secured from a prestigious client to construct a technical building in Maharashtra. Yet another design and built contract has been bagged from a major client for the construction of a residential project at Bengaluru, Karnataka. The scope includes construction of shell and core works. The business has also received additional orders from ongoing jobs.
In a separate announcement during trading hours today, 27 March 2017, L&T said that the water and effluent treatment business segment of the construction arm of L&T has won an order worth Rs 705 crore. The project will be executed by L&T in a joint venture with Shriram EPC.This engineering, procurement and construction order has been secured from the Ministry of Water and Irrigation of the United Republic of Tanzania for the extension of the water transmission pipeline from the Lake Victoria Water Supply scheme to Tabora, Nzega and Igunga Towns, Package II.
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State-run Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) was up 0.48% to Rs 168. The company announced during trading hours today, 27 March 2017, that it successfully commissioned 250 MW unit based on eco-friendly Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion (CFBC) technology, using low grade coal (lignite) as the primary fuel. The 250 MW lignite based thermal unit is the second unit to be commissioned at Bhavnagar Energy Company (BECL)'s 2x250 MW thermal power project, located at Padva village in Bhavnagar District of Gujarat. The first unit of the project was commissioned earlier in May, 2016. The project is based on CFBC technology - an environment friendly technology to utilize India's large resource of low grade, high moisture lignite.
Telecom shares declined. Idea Cellular (down 3.69%), Reliance Communications (down 2.72%%), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 1.02%), MTNL (down 0.62%) and Bharti Airtel (down 0.5%), edged lower.
Telecom tower infrastructure provider Bharti Infratel was up 0.74%.
IT company HCL Technologies dropped 1.50% to Rs 858.30 after the company said its client filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court against the company. The company issued the clarification on Saturday, 25 March 2017 with regards to news item appearing in the media.
HCL Technologies said MillerCoors, LLC, a client of the company has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against the company and HCL America Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. MillerCoors allegations under the complaint is that HCL did not deliver an enterprise software project as per the agreed timelines. The specific project started in December 2013 and ended in June 2016. The company continues to have a good business relationship with MillerCoors. The company has other ongoing projects with MillerCoors running smoothly. The company is in discussions with MillerCoors to resolve this matter amicably. The project in consideration has already ended and the company is not expecting any adverse financial impact of the same for Q4 March 2017.
On the economic front, the government is likely to table supplementary goods and services tax (GST) legislations in Parliament today, 27 March 2017. Central GST (C-GST), integrated GST (I-GST), Union Territory GST (UT-GST) and the compensation law are likely to be introduced in the Lok Sabha today, 27 March 2017, and could be taken up for discussion as early as 28 March 2017, media reports suggested.
Overseas, Asian stocks declined as investors continued to worry about the Trump's administration's inability to push through its policy initiatives. US stocks ended lower on Friday, 24 March 2017, as House Republicans withdrew the American Health Care Act after determining that they did not have enough votes to pass the bill. The withdrawal is a major setback for President Donald Trump who had made the repeal and the replacement of the existing Affordable Care Act one of his main campaign pledges.
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