Gold import plunges 52.5% to $4.97 bn in April-July

Gold imports more than halved to USD 4.97 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal, which is expected to keep a lid on the current account deficit.

The sliding prices of the precious metal in both global and domestic markets are seen as a contributory factor for the 52.5 per cent decline.

Gold imports stood at USD 10.47 billion in April-July of 2015.

The in-bound shipments contracted for the sixth consecutive month in July by 63.65 per cent to USD 1.07 billion, according to Commerce Ministry data.

The contraction in imports helped narrow trade deficit to USD 7.76 billion last month as against USD 13 billion in July 2015.

India is one of the largest gold importers in the world and the imports mainly take care of demand of the jewellery industry.

India's CAD narrowed to 1.3 per cent of GDP in the third quarter of 2015-16 as against 1.5 per cent in the same period of the previous year, primarily due to a lower trade deficit.

With an aim to monetise gold lying idle in households and temples, the government netted 3.1 tonnes of the metal under the sovereign gold bond scheme since its launch in November.

As per the data, silver imports too went down by 80 per cent to USD 54.58 million in July as against USD 277.6 million in the same month last year.

However, in-bound shipments of pearls, precious and semi-precious stones grew 16.3 per cent in July.

Sensex slips 88 points on disappointing macro data

 Market benchmark Sensex declined 88 points to close at 28,064.61 Tuesday as investors cut down their bets after industrial output growth slowed down to 2.1 percent in June and inflation hits two-year high.

Lower international advices following a sharp rally in the yen and disappointing Japanese second-quarter GDP figures also hit investor sentiment.

An official data on Friday showed industrial output grew by 2.1 percent in June, although down from 4.2 percent a year ago, on account of poor show by manufacturing and heavy contraction in capital goods.

Besides, retail inflation shot up to nearly two-year high of 6.07 percent in July, well above RBI's comfortable level, on surge in prices of food items as demand for sugar, oil & fats and spices rose ahead of the festival season.

WPI inflation today hit a 23-month high of 3.55 percent in July.

"Markets have begun to refocus on macros, and the first of those have disappointed. Both the CPI and WPI have diminished chances of a rate cut in October," said Anand James Chief Market Strategist, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

The BSE Sensex resumed higher at 28,190.04 and hovered in a range of 28,199.10 to 27,942.65 before closing at 28,064.61, showing a fall of 87.79 points or 0.31 percent. The gauge had gained 377.52 in the previous two sessions.

The 50-issue Nifty fell 29.60 points or 0.34 percent to close at 8,642.55. Intra-day, it hovered between 8,682.35 and 8,600.45.

Shares of Unitech slumped 16.91 percent after the real estate firm expressed inability before the Supreme Court to refund money to the home buyers over its two delayed projects in Noida and Gurgaon.

Stock of Infosys slipped 1.16 percent to Rs 1,050.95 after the tech major announced it will ramp-down about 3,000 jobs, following Royal Bank of Scotland's decision to cancel a project to set up a separate bank in the UK.

Overseas, Asian stocks ended lower as the price of crude oil took a breather from a three-day rally. Japanese stocks fell by 1.62 percent as the yen strengthened against the dollar.

Other indices like China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan moved down by 0.09 percent to 0.49 percent.

European also edged lower key indices in France, Germany and the UK down between 0.04 percent and 0.13 percent.

Turning to the domestic market, 17 scrips out of the 30-share Sensex ended lower.

Major losers were Sun Pharma 2.35 percent, Tata Motors 1.62 percent, TCS 1.50 percent, Wipro 1.38 percent, HDFC 1.36 percent, Axis Bank 1.27 percent, Bharti Airtel 1.24 percent, RIL 1.04 percent, HUL 0.97 percent and Maurti 0.89 percent.

However, Cipla rose 7.14 percent, Adani Ports 6.12 percent, SBI 1.34 percent, Tata Steel 1.17 percent, L&T 1.15 percent, ICICI Bank 1.12 percent and ONGC 0.86 percent.

The market breadth remained negative as 1,614 stocks closed in red, while 1,110 stocks finished in green and 169 ruled steady.

The total turnover fell to Rs 3,314.56 crore from Rs 3,996.38 crore on Friday.