Benchmarks continue sluggish trade in late afternoon session

Indian benchmark indices continued to trade in red in late afternoon session on sustained selling by investors and funds amid weak Asian cues. The 30-share barometer was down with sectoral indices led by consumer durables, realty and IT trading lower. However, losses remained capped as traders took some encouragement with the Finance Minister's statement that there is a long-term potential of more resources getting into the system and that is going to be the top priority. Meanwhile, NITI Aayog CEO, Amitabh Kant has said that the country needs innovative policies to enable disruption and enhance per capita income.

On the global front, European markets were trading lower despite a firm showing by US futures as recent dollar strength subsides and government bond yields nudge down from recent highs. Asian stocks were trading lower, with a stronger yen, data showing slowing growth in China's property market and tensions between China and the U.S. over the South China Sea weighing on markets.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26451.00, down by 38.56 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 26369.28 and 26505.66. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.13%, while Small cap index was down by 0.12%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.25%, PSU up by 0.37% and Power up by 0.33%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.60%, Realty down by 0.55%, Capital Goods down by 0.41%, TECK down by 0.36% and IT down by 0.26% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were GAIL India up by 2.53%, ICICI Bank up by 1.08%, Cipla up by 0.80%, Lupin up by 0.78% and Tata Motors up by 0.77%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.56%, Asian Paints down by 1.51%, Adani Ports &Special down by 1.09%, SBI down by 0.98% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.98% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that India’s infrastructure sector has the potential of boosting GDP growth up to 3% and efforts are being put in by the centre to achieve this objective. The minister said that the government has accorded the highest prominence to infrastructure. He added that the development of integrated logistics and inland waterways would be a game changer, the government is planning to develop an integrated system of roads, railways, airports and water ports and is also working on port-led industrialization.

Gadkari said that infrastructure as a sector is not just an employment generator, but is also a growth engine. By ensuring that land acquisition processes are made less complicated and improving cross ministerial coordination to get projects cleared and off the ground, the cost of projects has been optimized. This has facilitated the return of investor interest in road projects. Initiatives like construction of 40 kilometers of roads every day, building the 14 express-highways and exploring the potential of in-land waterways can boost our GDP growth by 2-3%.

Highlighting the huge potential for the port sector, Gadkari stated that the shipping sector made a profit of about Rs 6,000 crore in this year and intends to make this figure Rs 7,000 crore in the next year. Further he added that to relieve from rising traffic and pollution, government is looking at electric modes of transport to address the problem of pollution in the Capital over the next 400 days.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8118.85, down by 20.60 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 8105.35 and 8132.50. There were 20 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Aurobindo Pharma up by 2.51%, GAIL India up by 2.47%, Tata Power up by 1.31%, ICICI Bank up by 1.10% and Grasim Industries up by 1.03%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 2.66%, Asian Paints down by 1.74%, Sun Pharma down by 1.60%, Bosch down by 1.43% and Adani Ports &Special down by 1.34% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets were trading in red; Hang Seng decreased 188.07 points or 0.85% to 21,832.68, Taiwan Weighted decreased 87.46 points or 0.94% to 9,239.32, Jakarta Composite decreased 29.48 points or 0.56% to 5,202.18, Nikkei 225 decreased 9.55 points or 0.05% to 19,391.60, Shanghai Composite decreased 4.9 points or 0.16% to 3,118.08, KOSPI Index decreased 3.85 points or 0.19% to 2,038.39 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 3.35 points or 0.2% to 1,634.44.

All the European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC dropped 18.76 points or 0.39% to 4,816.17, Germany’s DAX decreased 17.64 points or 0.15% to 11,386.37 and UK’s FTSE 100 was down by 12.89 points or 0.18% to 6,998.7.