Weakness in Asian stocks weighed on investor sentiment, with key benchmark indices slipping into the red from green in afternoon trade. At 13:15 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 12.20 points or 0.05% at 24,634.28. The 50-unit Nifty 50 index was down 6.80 points or 0.09% at 7,478.55.
The Sensex fell 31.89 points, or 0.12% at the day's low of 24,614.59 in afternoon trade. The barometer index rose 147.14 points, or 0.6% at the day's high of 24,793.62 in morning trade, its highest level since 2 February 2016. The Nifty fell 9.50 points, or 0.12% at the day's low of 7,475.85 in afternoon trade. The Nifty rose 41.80 points, or 0.56% at the day's high of 7527.15 in early trade, its highest level since 2 February 2016.
In overseas stock markets, markets in Asia lost ground, stepping back from their recent rally, with weak China trade data weighing on the sentiment. China's February exports fell 25.4% in dollar terms, while imports fell 13.8%. The drop in exports was the largest on-year drop since 2009. US stocks eked out small gains yesterday, 7 March 2016, partly due to a jump in oil prices.
Closer home, the market breadth indicating the overall health of the market was positive. On BSE, 1,404 shares rose and 1,035 shares fell. A total of 134 shares were unchanged. The BSE Mid-Cap index was currently down 0.15%. The decline in this index was higher than the Sensex's decline in percentage terms. The BSE Small-Cap index was currently up 0.37%, outperforming the Sensex.
Telecom stocks declined. Reliance Communications (down 0.18%), Idea Cellular (down 0.24%), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 2.05%) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (down 1.41%) edged lower. Bharti Airtel (up 0.85%) edged higher.
Auto stocks witnessed mixed trend. Eicher Motors (up 2.13%), Tata Motors (up 0.63%), Bajaj Auto (up 0.9%) and Mahindra & Mahindra (up 0.29%) edged higher. Maruti Suzuki India (down 2.41%), TVS Motor Company (down 1.7%) and Hero MotoCorp (down 0.68%) declined.
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Ashok Leyland was down 0.86% at Rs 92.60. The company announced during trading hours today, 8 March 2016, that its board of directors approved the proposal to delist the global depository receipts (GDRs) of the company from the London Stock Exchange. The underlying shares arising out of GDRs are listed with BSE and NSE.
Coal India rose 0.55% at Rs 327 after the company said that its board of directors at a meeting held on Saturday, 5 March 2016, approved payment of interim dividend of Rs 27.40 per share for the year ending 31 March 2016. The stock offered a dividend yield of 8.42% based on its closing price of Rs 325.20 on the BSE on Friday, 4 March 2016. Meanwhile, with regard to media reports titled "Coal India temporarily halts production at its mines over lack of demand", the company during market hours today, 8 March 2016, in its clarification said that due to regulated lifting by the power houses, coal stock has increased in some of the mines of Coal India. Increase in stock will create stock management problems, result in deterioration in quality of coal and the coal may catch fire. As such some of the mines have regulated production, the company said. As on 7 March 2016, the company has achieved 9.3% growth in coal production compared to same period last year.
Meanwhile, the government has scrapped the controversial proposal to tax withdrawals from the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF). Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the decision in Lok Sabha today,8 March 2016. In Union Budget 2016-17 on 29 February 2016, the government had announced that 40% of the total corpus withdrawn at the time of retirement would be tax-exempt, both under EPF and National Pension System. This made the remaining 60% of the EPF's incremental corpus taxable from 2016-17 unless the amount was invested in an annuity product. At present, withdrawal from EPF is entirely tax-free.
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