Markets continue to reel in red ahead of US employment data

Indian markets continued their weak trend with benchmarks struggling below their crucial levels, to get a foot hold after the initial fall. Not only the bluchips but the broader markets too are witnessing selling pressure ahead of the US employment data. The Asian peers also continued the sluggish trade and the rupee too slid further on increased demand for the American currency from importers and banks, weighing down the market sentiments. Meanwhile, the banking sector continued their jubilation after the President Pranab Mukherjee gave his nod to the ordinance dealing with the banking sector's non-performing loans and the amendment to the Banking Regulation Act. However, moving an amendment to the banking regulation act may take time as the next session of parliament starts sometime after second week of July. On the sectoral front, consumer durables and banking have taken the lead, while metals and basic material tracking their global counterparts were dragging the markets lower. In non sectoral gauge aviation was surging on weakness in global crude prices.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 29987.24, down by 138.97 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 29957.17 and 30176.55. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were showing a mixed trend; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.07%, while Small cap index was up by 0.10%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.00%, PSU up by 0.40%, Bankex up by 0.28%, Realty up by 0.24%, Consumer Disc up by 0.18%, while Metal down by 1.99%, Basic Materials down by 1.07%, Telecom down by 0.82%, Capital Goods down by 0.79%, Industrials down by 0.78% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 1.68%, SBI up by 1.67%, Coal India up by 0.80%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 0.71% and Maruti Suzuki up by 0.51%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 2.70%, ONGC down by 1.67%, Tata Steel down by 1.57%, HDFC down by 1.21% and Larsen & Toubro down by 1.19% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) President Shobana Shobana Kamineni has expressed her optimism that the country can witness 10 per cent gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate by fiscal year 2019-20 on the back of enormous opportunities available in the Indian economy. For the current year, she also expected GDP growth to touch 8 per cent. 

Shobana Kamineni has stated that this can be achieved by targeting one per cent additional growth each year that would also lead to create five million jobs each year. She said ‘as of now, we are creating about 3.7 million jobs annually’. She further highlighted that the drivers for this step up in growth would include the benefits from roll out of GST regime, greater participation of women in the labour force, urbanization process and government spending of up to Rs 30 lakh crore in various infrastructure projects. Adding further, she said that the urbanization process will drive greater economic activity in areas such as construction and the entire construction sector can add 30 million jobs in the next 10 years.

Favouring a reduction in corporate tax, Kamineni said that the CII would continue to request the government for quick action in reducing income tax for all corporates. She noted that the 25% rate is currently applicable only for companies with turnover up to Rs 50 crore. She also said that eventually, the corporate tax rate could be brought down to 18% together with the removal of all incentives and added that this will lead to much better tax compliance

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9319.20, down by 40.70 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 9313.10 and 9377.10. There were 20 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bank Of Baroda up by 1.86%, SBI up by 1.55%, Asian Paints up by 1.53%, Indiabulls Housing up by 1.31% and Aurobindo Pharma up by 1.23%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 3.85%, Tata Motors down by 2.67%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.97%, ONGC down by 1.83% and Tata Steel down by 1.57% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were showing mixed trend, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 3.77 points or 0.21% to 1,762.44 and Jakarta Composite increased by 12.81 points or 0.23% to 5,682.26.

On the other hand, Hang Seng lost 260.17 points or 1.05% to 24,423.71, Taiwan Weighted decreased 67.7 points or 0.68% to 9,899.94 and Shanghai Composite was down by 27.25 points or 0.87% to 3,100.12.