Benchmarks make soft start on weak global cues

Pressurized by feeble global cues, Indian equity benchmarks have made a weak start and are trading with a cut of one third of a percent in early deals on Friday. However, 27,200 and 8,400 proved to be the crucial levels for Sensex and Nifty respectively, as the key gauges are still managing to hold on to those levels. Traders took some encouragement with report that India emerging as the 'sweet spot' along with neighbour China to rev up the global economic growth at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual meet in Davos. Along with China, India was also applauded as a major driving force for world growth with leaders and economists emphasising the need for increased regional cooperation.

Global cues remained weak with most of the Asian counters trading in red at this point of time. However, the Shanghai Composite Index held gains after Chinese gross domestic product for the fourth quarter topped economist forecasts. The US markets ended modestly lower in the last session, partly due to uncertainty about President-elect Donald Trump's policies ahead of his inauguration on Friday.

Back home, stocks related to IT and pharma counters remained under pressure ahead of Donald Trump's swearing-in as US President today. There will be caution on talks of pricing pressure on pharma, and new H1B norms for IT companies. However, Aviation stocks viz. Indigo, Jet Airways and Spicejet flying high in early deals as more than three dozen airports across India, which today do not handle a single flight, may get connected under the government’s UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik) scheme. Bids by interested airlines have been received to connect 43 such new airports for 190 routes.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27209.68, down by 98.92 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 27195.09 and 27264.41. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in mixed; the BSE Mid cap index slipped 0.13%, while Small cap index was up by 0.02%.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.61% and FMCG was up by 0.16%, while Bankex down by 0.69%, IT down by 0.62%, TECK down by 0.40%, Power down by 0.39% and Consumer Durables was down by 0.29% were the top losing indices on BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Cipla up by 1.47%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.93%, GAIL India up by 0.71%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.56% and HDFC Bank was up by 0.51%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 5.76%, ICICI Bank down by 1.35%, Adani Ports down by 1.29%, Power Grid down by 1.14% and Infosys down was by 1.04% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to develop an India Innovation Index that will provide impetus to Indian states to drive the innovation spirit, the World Economic Forum, NITI Aayog, the World Intellectual Property Organization and the Cornell University have come together. The index will be based on key pillars of innovation and sub-indices that together will assist in tailoring policies that promote inclusive growth. The pillars include the strength of institutions, capacity of human capital and research, supporting infrastructure and the level of business sophistication among others.

The index will measure and rank the innovation performance of all Indian states with an aim of moving India towards an innovation-driven economy. Each partnering organisation will nominate a working group member to work on the index. The first ranking is expected to be released at the India Economic Summit in New Delhi on October 4-6, 2017.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the competitive and cooperative federalism is key to India's progress and added that this index will encourage states to compete with each other and, in turn, lead to better policies for inclusive growth.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8405.30, down by 29.80 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 8397.05 and 8423.65. There were 20 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Idea Cellular up by 3.10%, Cipla up by 1.34%, Yes Bank up by 1.22%, GAIL India up by 1.01% and Grasim Industries was up by 0.78%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 5.80%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 2.21%, ICICI Bank down by 1.45%, Bharti Infratel down by 1.23% and Tata Motors was down by 1.19% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 142.1 points or 0.62% to 22,907.86, Jakarta Composite fell 30.88 points or 0.58% to 5,268.07, KOSPI Index shed 4.98 points or 0.24% to 2,067.81 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 0.47 points or 0.03% to 1,666.04.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite increased 16.73 points or 0.54% to 3,118.03, Taiwan Weighted added 25.08 points or 0.27% to 9,343.20 and Nikkei 225 was up by 36.81 points or 0.19% to 19,109.06.