Indian bourses continue to trade in negative terrain

Indian bourses continued their weak trade in the afternoon session on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters and tailing weak global counterparts. Broader sentiment was also hit by fears about the impact of US President Donald Trump's immigration curbs. However, losses remained capped as some support came with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), along with demonetisation will bring more revenues as far as states and the central government are concerned and enlarge the size as far as the formal economy is concerned. Meanwhile, the tax department tried to assuage investors concern ahead of implementation of GAAR from April 1. The Central Board of Direct Taxes in clarifications on GAAR, said that the adequate procedural safeguards are in place to ensure that General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR), which seeks to prevent companies from routing transactions through other countries to avoid taxes, are invoked in a uniform, fair and rational manner. In scrip specific development, India Cements was trading in green on reporting around eleven-fold jump in its net profit at Rs 35.34 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2016, as compared to Rs 3.16 crore for the same quarter in the previous year.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, tracking the lackluster cues from Wall Street closed flat on Friday on some disappointing U.S. corporate earnings and GDP data. Investors also turned cautious after immigration curbs introduced by U.S. President Donald Trump heightened concerns about the impact of the new administration's policies on trade and the economy.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27851.58, down by 30.88 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 27813.32 and 27916.20. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.26%, while Small cap index was down by 0.05%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.66%, Capital Goods up by 0.47% and TECK up by 0.15%, while Auto down by 0.76%, Consumer Durables down by 0.69%, Bankex down by 0.54%, IT down by 0.41% and Metal down by 0.34% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 4.51%, Sun Pharma up by 1.56%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 0.87%, Larsen & Toubro up by 0.82% and Reliance Industries up by 0.79%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.49%, Wipro down by 1.42%, Tata Steel down by 1.25%, TCS down by 1.16% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.12% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the road, transport, highways and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari has said that government is focusing on enhancing infrastructure sector, mainly ports, roads and waterways in order to reduce logistics cost. He has said that logistics cost is very high in the country that is 18 percent. He added that it is easy to take any material from Mumbai to Dubai or from Mumbai to London, but it is very difficult to take material from Mumbai to Delhi as it is costly and complicated. Therefore, he said that they want to give highest priority to that on how they can reduce this cost. He also made a pitch for port-led development which is essential for higher economic growth.

The minister has expressed his hope that the target of 40 km of road construction per day will be achieved by next year. He said that it was 2 km per day, last year, it was 18 km per day and by the end of this March, it will be 30 km per day. But their target was 40 km per day, and he is confident that next year, they will complete that target and added that the government will complete 2 lakh km National Highway on time. He also said that by December-end the ministry has finalised contracts worth $80 billion.

About ports and shipping, Gadkari said that contracts worth Rs 1 lakh crore have been finalized in order to give a push to the sector. He said that most important for development is port led development and they have Sagarmala as a big investment project. He added that they have already started work on Rs 1 lakh crore. Minister noted that last year, the three flagships including Cochin Shipyard, Shipping Corporation of India and Dredging Corporation have recorded profit of Rs 6,000 crore and for this year, they are expecting profit of about Rs 7,000 crore and they are going to invest this profit.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8628.00, down by 13.25 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 8617.75 and 8650.15. There were 17 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Idea Cellular up by 8.97%, Bharti Airtel up by 4.68%, Grasim Industries up by 2.66%, Sun Pharma up by 1.37% and Dr. Reddys Lab up by 0.90%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 2.15%, Aurobindo Pharma down by 1.87%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.65%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.25% and HCL Tech. down by 1.21% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mixed; Nikkei 225 was down by 98.55 points or 0.51% to 19,368.85, while Jakarta Composite was up by 5.09 points or 0.1% to 5,317.93.

Markets in China, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and Hong Kong were shut on Monday for the Lunar New Year holiday.