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Benchmark indices continued their southward journey in the morning trades as selling in information technology shares weighed on the sentiment. The US Congress has imposed a special fee of up to $4,500 on the H-1B and L-1 visas popular among Indian IT companies to fund a 9/11 healthcare act and biometric tracking system thus hitting the Indian IT cos.
At 11:30am, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 124 points at 25,680 and the Nifty50 was down 37 points at 7,807. The broader markets are, however, outperforming their larger peers with BSE Midcap and Smallcap indicesup between 0.1%-0.5% each.
Nasscom, apex association of information technology (IT) companies, has said a proposal before the American national legislature to raise H-1B and L-1 visa fees may cost the Indian IT firms about $400million.
Following the news, the BSE IT sector has dropped 0.8%. Infosys, TCS, Wipro have all slipped between 0.2% - 1.2% each.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said from April 1, 2016, banks must review their lending rates frequently, and reflect changes in their cost of borrowing in a bid to force banks to effectively pass on policy rate cuts.
SBI, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank have all lost between 0.1%-1% each.
Further, the Indian rupee depreciated by 3 paise to 66.40 to the US dollar following gains in the American currency after the US Fed raised interest rate by 25 basis points, the first in nearly a decade
Meanwhile, in its mid –year economic review, government has reiterated FY16 GDP growth forecast to 7-7.5%.
STOCKS IN FOCUS
NTPC has emerged as the top gainer in a weak market. The stock has soared 1.4% after reports suggest that the company has now put its decision of converting its Badarpur Thermal Power Station into a gas-based plant on the back burner because of shortage of gas supplies.
Maruti Suzuki was trading 0.2% each after minority shareholders seem to have given their approval to allow Suzuki to invest and run its third plant in Gujarat. Maruti has a contract manufacturing agreement with Suzuki for the Gujarat plant, under which the Japanese auto major will sell products to Maruti on a no-profit-no-loss basis.
Shares of HDFC were down nearly 1% after the mortgage lender said it plans to sell its 22.90% stake in its subsidiary HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company to its joint-venture partner ERGO International AG, Dusseldorf.
Oil & Gas shares are trading subdued on the back of weak global commodity prices. ONGC,Reliance Industries, Gail, Cairn are down between 0.5-1.1% each while OMCs- BPCL, HPCL, IOC have all gained between 0.3%-1.3% each.
Bank of Baroda has slipped nearly 1% on the Sensex after CBI filed a charge sheet in connection with the case of alleged illegal remittances worth Rs 6,000 crore made to South East Asian countries from the branches of Bank of Baroda.
Other losers on the Sensex are Bajaj Auot, Bharti Airtel, BHEL, all down between 1-1.5% each.
Among other shares, MT Educare has rallied 10% to Rs 162, extending its previous day’s 7% gain on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on back of heavy volumes.
