Benchmarks remain flat in late afternoon session

Struggling for direction amid largely weak global cues, Indian equity benchmarks remained flat in late afternoon session. Geopolitical tensions rising between US and North Korea, and US President Donald Trump’s call for reviewing H1-B visa programme kept the markets wary and uncertain. Sentiments remained subdued with the report that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) trimmed India's annual growth forecast by 0.4 percentage points to 7.2 percent for 2017, citing the impact of demonetisation. However, investors took some support with the report that rising one spot to rank 8 in this year’s AT Kearney Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Confidence Index, India remained in the top 10 for the second year in a row. The country’s level of confidence in a market as a future destination for FDI scored 1.68 on a 0 to 3 scale, with 31 percent of the surveyed respondents being more optimistic on economic outlook over the next three years. Besides, FDI by Indian companies in their overseas ventures jumped over two-fold to $2.99 billion last month. Investments in March this year were much higher than the preceding month, February, at $867.53 million.

On the global front, European markets were trading mixed as investors digested news of snap elections in the U.K. and fresh earnings reports. However, Asian markets were trading in red. Back home, in scrip specific development, Raymond, textile and apparel maker was trading higher after the company received an approval to issue Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs) aggregating up to an amount of Rs 150 crore on private placement basis.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29331.41, up by 12.31 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 29241.48 and 29373.55. There were 13 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.49%, while Small cap index was up by 0.51%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 2.19%, Power up by 2.05%, Realty up by 1.26%, Industrials up by 0.68% and PSU up by 0.50%, while IT down by 0.65%, TECK down by 0.45%, Bankex down by 0.34% and Telecom down by 0.12% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid up by 4.60%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 2.02%, NTPC up by 1.98%, Coal India up by 1.33% and Tata Motors up by 0.77%. On the flip side, SBI down by 0.95%, TCS down by 0.94%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.80%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.69% and Infosys down by 0.65% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to deepen the corporate bond market and ensure better price discovery avenues for investors, the capital market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is planning to put in place a framework for consolidation and re-issuance of debt securities, whose proposal will be discussed at the next meeting of SEBI.

The market regulator has taken a series of measures and with an increase in corporate bond issuances in recent years, it is looking at ways to boost overall liquidity in the debt securities segment. The proposal focuses on minimising the number of International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs). The framework for securities issued under the 'Issue and Listing of Debt Securities' regulations of SEBI, would help in capping the fragmented issues and could be a possible solution to improve liquidity. Besides, a liquid corporate bond market would help in better price discovery ways.

Trading of corporate bonds in the secondary market has increased in last couple of years and stood at Rs 14.7 lakh crore in the last financial year, from just Rs 1.48 lakh crore in 2008-09 period. Besides, private placement of corporate bonds rose to Rs 6.4 lakh crore in 2016-17 compared to Rs 1.18 lakh crore in 2007-08.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9101.40, down by 3.75 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 9079.50 and 9120.50. There were 25 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Power Grid up by 4.62%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.60%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 2.16%, Tata Power up by 2.15% and NTPC up by 2.10%. On the flip side, Aurobindo Pharma down by 1.81%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.25%, SBI down by 1.09%, TCS down by 1.08% and Tech Mahindra down by 1.05% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted decreased 106.62 points or 1.09% to 9,639.94, Hang Seng decreased 98.66 points or 0.41% to 23,825.88, Shanghai Composite decreased 26.03 points or 0.81% to 3,170.69, KOSPI Index decreased 10.06 points or 0.47% to 2,138.40 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 0.82 points or 0.05% to 1,739.78. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 increased 13.61 points or 0.07% to 18,432.20 and Jakarta Composite increased 29.03 points or 0.52% to 5,606.52.

European markets were trading mixed; France’s CAC increased 2.59 points or 0.05% to 4,992.84 and Germany’s DAX increased 19.14 points or 0.16% to 12,019.58. On the flip side, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 14.84 points or 0.21% to 7,132.66.