Sensex, Nifty continues weak trade though mildly in green

Indian equities continued their weak trade in the late afternoon session on account of profit-booking, especially in FMCG space, led by around 3 percent fall in HUL after company reported weaker than expected first-quarter earnings. Caution remained in the market with the shares of IT major Wipro edging lower ahead of its first quarter earnings numbers which will be declared later in the day. However losses remain capped as investor were hoping for the passage of the deadlocked GST Bill in Rajya Sabha. Trader also took some encouragement with Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian’s statement that 8 per cent growth for Indian economy is easily doable in the next 10 years, provided the international market remain a cooperative. He said ‘the country is already growing at 7 per cent plus, so I think that 8 to 8 per cent plus growth for the next 10 years is imminently doable’. On sectoral front, PSU bank shares gained after government allocated Rs 22,915 crore to state-run banks as first tranche of bank re-capitalisation money.

On global front, Asian stocks are mostly lower on Tuesday as investors stuck to a holding pattern as they awaited more corporate earnings and a European Central Bank policy meeting later in the week.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27760.20, up by 13.54 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 27689.96 and 27804.73. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.17%, while Small cap index added by 0.08%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.11%, PSU up by 0.88%, Bankex up by 0.44%, Metal up by 0.40%, Power up by 0.29% while, FMCG down by 0.88%, Consumer Durables down by 0.31%, IT down by 0.21%, TECK down by 0.05% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 2.31%, SBI up by 1.31%, Adani Ports &Special up by 1.15%, Lupin up by 1.06% and Sun Pharma up by 1.06%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.93%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.44%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.92%, HDFC Bank down by 0.91% and ITC down by 0.66% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, offering investment opportunities in building and developing new ports, construction of new berths/terminals in existing ports, coastal economic zones, dredging, ship building, ship repairing, ship recycling, development of inland waterways and coastal and cruise shipping, the government will provide maritime clusters for ancillary industrial support and design centres, as well as financial assistance to meet the challenge of lack of competitive advantage due to heavy subsidies provided by major shipbuilding countries to their shipbuilding industry.

The Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari during his recent visit to America, explored joint venture opportunities with India’s flagship container handling Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT) to promote transfer of technology and enhance bilateral commerce and said that American Ports have evinced a keen interest in a comprehensive port-led development, especially the ambitious Sagarmala programme, which with 150 projects have potential of mobilising $50-60 Billion of infrastructure investment and another $ 100 Billion of promoting industrial growth.

Gadkari further said that the government has agreed to provide maritime clusters for ancillary industrial support and design centres, as well as financial assistance to meet the challenge of lack of competitive advantage due to heavy subsidies provided by major shipbuilding countries to their shipbuilding industry.

The minister told the US maritime sector that thematic studies and action plans have been developed across sector for implementation, prominent elements of which include coastal shipping revolution, coastal industrial Greenfield plants, reduced time to export container by five days and reducing cost to export by $50 per container.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8513.45, up by 4.75 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 8493.65 and 8525.95. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 2.30%, Bank Of Baroda up by 1.85%, ONGC up by 1.35% and BPCL up by 1.30% and Idea Cellular up by 1.30%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.98%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.64%, Eicher Motors down by 1.52%, Indusind Bank down by 1.46% and Yes Bank down by 0.94% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red, Hang Seng decreased 139.87 points or 0.64% to 21,663.31, Shanghai Composite slipped 12.05 points or 0.4% to 3,031.51, KOSPI Index was down 4.22 points or 0.21% to 2,016.89, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI declined 1.41 points or 0.08% to 1,669.43. On other hand, Taiwan Weighted increased 26.66 points or 0.3% to 9,034.87, Jakarta Composite surged 55.52 points or 1.08% to 5,183.02, Nikkei 225 climed 225.46 points or 1.37% to 16,723.31