Choppiness continues on Dalal Street in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks continue to trade choppy in noon deals with frontline gauges trading tad below their neutral lines as traders seem to be taking cautious approach on bets that the Federal Reserve will boost interest rates as soon as next month. However, losses remained capped with RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan’s statement that the central bank will cut interest rate provided it feels confident that inflation will remain below 6 percent even after the reduction. Appreciation in Indian rupee too bounded the losses. The rupee edged up 2 paise to 63.73 against the US dollar in noon trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on increased selling of the dollar by exporters.

Global cues remained sluggish with European counters making a weak start with CAC, DAX and FTSE all trading in red in early deals. Asian markets were trading mostly in red at this point of time as jitters about China's economy and upcoming U.S. jobs data kept buying appetite in check. Sentiments also remained dampened on reports that Chinese manufacturing is weakening despite government stimulus efforts have reignited concerns about a hard landing for the world's No. 2 economy. Back home, on the sectoral front, consumer durables, healthcare and capital goods witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while fast moving consumer durables, auto and banking remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading slightly in red, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 1,224 shares on the gaining side against 1,396 shares on the losing side while 115 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 28194.94, down by 28.14 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 28163.69 and 28314.40. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.14%, while Small cap index down by 0.16%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.25%, Healthcare up by 1.24%, Capital Goods up by 0.54% and Realty up by 0.46%, while FMCG down by 1.26%, Auto down by 0.21%, Bankex down by 0.20%, PSU down by 0.18% and IT down by 0.11% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.38%, Lupin up by 1.66%, Hindalco up by 1.02%, Larsen & Toubro up by 0.65% and Sun Pharma Inds. up by 0.60%. On the flip side, ITC down by 1.90%, Coal India down by 1.34%, ICICI Bank down by 0.77%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.71% and GAIL India down by 0.52% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman replying to a query in the parliament has informed that, as many as 19 proposals with an estimated investment of Rs 30,552.45 crore are under the consideration of the government. She said that “There are 19 proposals of big investments, each in excess of Rs 100 crore under consideration of government.”

It was further elaborated that proposals for big investments under the government consideration pertains to sectors such as pharmaceuticals, information & broadcasting, insurance, non-banking finance companies and private banks.

Separately, the minister said that Centre has undertaken a number of steps to improve ease of doing business in India and the ministries and state governments have been advised to simplify and rationalize the regulatory environment through business process reengineering and use of information technology amongst the other important steps. Further she said that, as FDI is largely a matter of private business decisions, global investors normally take time to assess a new policy and its implications in the context of a particular market before making investment.

The minister said in the light of the importance of foreign direct investments for economic growth and development, the government announced key FDI reforms in the defence and railways sectors. The entire range of rail infrastructure was opened to 100 percent FDI under the automatic route, and in defence, sectoral cap was raised to 49 percent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8560.10, down by 7.85 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 8551.50 and 8590.50. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.45%, ACC up by 2.19%, Idea Cellular up by 1.81%, Lupin up by 1.66% and BPCL up by 1.60%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 2.71%, ITC down by 2.00%, Coal India down by 1.48%, Asian Paints down by 1.14% and ICICI Bank down by 0.92% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 165.25 points or 0.67% to 24,348.91, Taiwan Weighted declined 92.71 points or 1.09% to 8,449.56, Shanghai Composite dropped 35.19 points or 0.95% to 3,659.38, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI shed 19.96 points or 1.16% to 1,705.60, KOSPI Index dipped 16.47 points or 0.81% to 2,013.29, Jakarta Composite slipped 13.96 points or 0.29% to 4,836.57 and Straits Times was down by 7.71 points or 0.24% to 3,183.68. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 was up by 50.38 points or 0.24% to 20,664.44.

European Markets were trading in the red; Germany’s DAX lost 0.26%, France’s CAC declined 0.30% and UK’s FTSE was down by 0.42%.