Benchmarks continue to witness sluggish trend in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower in noon deals on sustained selling by funds and retail investors amid sluggish Asian cues. Sentiments also remained dampened after India's services activity broadly stagnated in November with the Nikkei Services Business Activity Index posting a five-month low of 50.2 compared with 52.6 in October, which was an eight-month high. Weak demand across the country meant services companies had the slowest rise in incoming new work since July. Depreciation in Indian rupee too weighed down sentiments.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red at this point of time after hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen reinforced the case for an interest rate hike later this month. Back home, on the sectoral front, realty, telecom and utilities witnessed the maximum gain in trade, while fast moving consumer goods, consumer durables and healthcare remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were reeling under pressure, while the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 1,301 shares on the gaining side against 1,193 shares on the losing side while 138 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 25971.85, down by 146.00 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 25955.02 and 26123.86. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.04%, while Small cap index down by 0.02%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.66%, Telecom up by 0.38%, Utilities up by 0.37%, Energy up by 0.24% and Power up by 0.12%, while FMCG down by 1.18%, Consumer Durables down by 0.84%, Healthcare down by 0.69%, Auto down by 0.63%, Metal down by 0.45% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 0.76%, NTPC up by 0.75%, Axis Bank up by 0.63%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.48% and Hindalco up by 0.25%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.72%, BHEL down by 1.70%, ITC down by 1.64%, Vedanta down by 1.59% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.56% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the national Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policy being prepared by government will help India become an innovative economy over the next 10 years. Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Amitabh Kant further elaborating said that recognising the need to scale up the process of IP creation and increase commercialisation of the technology, the government has embarked on the process of preparing a national IPR Policy and it has been formulated with a mission to foster innovation, accelerate economic growth, employment and entrepreneurship besides protecting public health, food security and environment.

Kant said that there is a need to improve the level of IP awareness across all sectors and it is critical that the need for IP creation and protection percolates down across industries, institutions and PSUs. However, he added that it is important to have an innovative ecosystem which supports translation of inventions into commercial use. This ecosystem can only be created and nurtured through initiatives of the government in collaboration with industry. He also said that the government has taken several measures to improve the delivery of services provided by IP office such as processing of IP applications.

IPR is widely recognised as a key component for a company's growth and in improving its competitiveness. A draft policy is in the public domain, which seeks to encourage innovation by providing tax incentives and modifying intellectual property rights.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 7887.00, down by 44.35 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 7878.35 and 7912.30. There were 11 stocks advancing against 38 stocks declining on the index while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 1.50%, NTPC up by 0.75%, Yes Bank up by 0.66%, Grasim Industries up by 0.63% and Reliance Industries up by 0.59%. On the flip side, BHEL down by 1.79%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.77%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.67%, ITC down by 1.66% and ONGC down by 1.59% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 28.39 points or 0.13% to 22,451.30, KOSPI Index declined 15.22 points or 0.76% to 1,994.07, Jakarta Composite slipped 2.39 points or 0.05% to 4,543.47, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI shed 1.75 points or 0.1% to 1,675.02 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 1.34 points or 0.02% to 8,456.06.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 increased 1.77 points or 0.01% to 19,939.90 and Shanghai Composite was up by 44.44 points or 1.26% to 3,581.35