Markets continue lackluster trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued their lackluster trade in late afternoon session as investors remained caution ahead of the start of the earnings season. The sentiments were also hit by geopolitical concerns. Traders were looking forward to a set of economic data - industrial production (IIP) for February and CPI inflation for March due later in the day. Besides, some of public sector banking stocks were trading in red despite Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that mission Indradhanush to infuse capital in public sector banks is not the last step as far as their recapitalisation is concerned and the government will fully support the public sector banks, since they have a very important role to play in supporting a large number of social programmes and extending the reach of banking and supporting infrastructure in the country. Meanwhile, India’s state-owned fuel retailers Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL), which own over 95 percent of nearly 58,000 petrol pumps in the country, will launch a pilot for daily price revision in five select cities from May 1 and gradually extend it to all over the country. Currently, state refiners revise fuel prices every fortnight to reflect volatility in the currency and global oil markets.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green despite investor concerns over a drumbeat of geopolitical news which has fueled the buying of safe-haven assets such as gold. Asian markets were trading in green. Back home, in scrip specific development, CL Educate traded higher after the company received an approval for acquisition of the balance 49% stake in the equity shares of Accendere Knowledge Management Services, making it a wholly-owned subsidiary company.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29722.87, down by 65.48 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 29549.74 and 29838.82. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.05%, while Small cap index was  down by 0.14%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.36%, FMCG up by 0.27%, Telecom up by 0.18%, Capital Goods up by 0.17% and Bankex up by 0.12%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.09%, Utilities down by 0.93%, Power down by 0.63%, PSU down by 0.44% and Industrials down by 0.34% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 0.74%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.69%, HDFC Bank up by 0.45%, ITC up by 0.41% and Infosys up by 0.34%. On the flip side, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 1.90%, Tata Steel down by 1.43%, NTPC down by 1.35%, Wipro down by 1.32% and GAIL India down by 1.27% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid growing demand to write off farm loans, Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar has said that there is no proposal under consideration of the union government, to waive loans of farmers of the country but major initiatives have been taken by the government to reduce the debt burden. He noted that the schemes are available to reduce costs by timely repayment of the amount borrowed.

Talking about the government initiatives to help the farmers, Gangwar said that under the Department of Agriculture, Cooperative & Farmers' Welfare with an interest subvention scheme, the government provides short-term crop loans up to Rs 3 lakh at subsidised interest rate of 7 per cent per annum. Besides, an additional incentive of 3 per cent is provided to farmers for prompt repayment of loans within due date, making an effective interest rate for them at 4 per cent.

Gangwar also said that lending agencies are instructed to provide relief measures in cases of natural calamities that not only restructures existing crop loans but also extends fresh loans.  He further said that the benchmark for initiating relief measures by banks has also been reduced to 33 per cent crop loss in line with the National Disaster Management Framework.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9220.60, down by 16.40 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 9161.80 and 9246.40. There were 21 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 2.01%, Eicher Motors up by 1.96%, Yes Bank up by 1.07%, Bosch up by 0.89% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.78%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 1.65%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.64%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 1.57%, Tata Steel down by 1.41% and GAIL India down by 1.25% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 4.59 points or 0.26% to 1,740.43, KOSPI Index increased 5.06 points or 0.24% to 2,128.91, Jakarta Composite increased 9.67 points or 0.17% to 5,637.60 and Hang Seng increased 225.04 points or 0.93% to 24,313.50. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 195.26 points or 1.04% to 18,552.61, Shanghai Composite decreased 15.14 points or 0.46% to 3,273.83 and Taiwan Weighted decreased 14.74 points or 0.15% to 9,817.68.

All European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 23.06 points or 0.31% to 7,388.56, France’s CAC increased 23.57 points or 0.46% to 5,125.43 and Germany’s DAX increased 56.26 points or 0.46% to 12,195.61.