Indian bourses continue to trade under pressure

Indian bourses continued their weak trade in afternoon session on account of selling witnessed in front line blue chip stocks. Cautiousness remained in markets ahead of April derivatives series expiry due today. Sentiments remained under pressure after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley expressed concern over the worrying signs of economic protectionism and has said the continued unpredictability in ties between major powers has brought new uncertainties to the fore. Investors failed to draw any sense of relief with Finance Minister assertion that the government was giving top priority to addressing the issue of bad loans while acknowledging that the problem of non-performing assets was ‘adversely impacting’ the Indian banking system. In scrip specific development, INOX Leisure was up by around one and half percent after commencing the commercial operations of a multiplex cinema theatre located at Pune with effect from April 26, 2017.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, following the weak lead from Wall Street amid uncertainty over the feasibility of the Trump administration's highly anticipated tax reform plan unveiled overnight. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 30068.50, down by 64.85 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 30044.77 and 30184.22. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.09%, while Small cap index was higher by 0.04%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.77%, IT up by 0.52%, Utilities up by 0.51%, Power up by 0.45% and TECK up by 0.41%, while Metal down by 0.88%, FMCG down by 0.59%, Energy down by 0.30%, Healthcare down by 0.29% and Basic Materials down by 0.25% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid up by 1.83%, Tata Motors up by 1.82%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.15%, Infosys up by 0.75% and GAIL India up by 0.41%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.85%, ITC down by 1.63%, Tata Steel down by 1.54%, Lupin down by 1.40% and SBI down by 0.77% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, beginning the new financial year on a promising note, bank credit growth improved to 5.52 percent in the first fortnight of the financial year (FY18), after falling to a whopping six-decade low of 5.08 per cent in the previous financial year (FY17). As per the Reserve Bank of India data, credit in the banking system rose to Rs 76.31 trillion in the fortnight to April 14 from Rs 72.31 trillion in the week to April 15, 2016.

For the reported fortnight, deposits of banks surged to Rs 105.92 trillion as against Rs 94.92 trillion a year ago, up by 11.59 percent. In the previous fiscal year, deposits grew by 11.75 percent on the back of note ban which had led to a large flow of funds into the banking system.

For the year to March, banks' outstanding credit stood at Rs 78.81 trillion as against Rs 75.01 trillion as of April 1, 2016 and the credit growth in FY17 was the lowest since fiscal 1954 due to high bad debt and almost nil corporate demand.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9339.70, down by 12.15 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 9329.25 and 9363.40. There were 22 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Yes Bank up by 2.25%, Tata Motors up by 1.84%, Power Grid up by 1.70%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.46% and Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.35%. On the flip side, Grasim Industries down by 1.86%, Axis Bank down by 1.82%, ITC down by 1.77%, Tata Steel down by 1.56% and Lupin down by 1.43% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Nikkei 225 decreased 37.56 points or 0.19% to 19,251.87, Jakarta Composite declined 20.31 points or 0.35% to 5,706.22 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 1.34 points or 0.08% to 1,767.58. On the flip side, KOSPI Index increased 1.62 points or 0.07% to 2,209.46, Taiwan Weighted surged 4.17 points or 0.04% to 9,860.62 and Shanghai Composite rose 9.88 points or 0.31% to 3,150.72.