Markets continue sluggish trade in late afternoon session

The Indian equity benchmarks continued their sluggish trade in late afternoon session, tracking bearish global cues and heavy selling pressure in Consumer Durables, Realty and Basic Materials stocks. Investors remained cautious over the ongoing two-day Good and Services Tax (GST) Council's meet, which will finalise tax slabs on services and commodities in the country. Some concerns also came with India Ratings and Research’s report that corporate and small & medium enterprise (SME) loans aggregating to Rs 2.60 lakh crore, which is 3.2 percent of total bank credit, could potentially be recognized as stressed loans by FY19. It further noted that Indian banks are sitting on unrecognized stressed loans worth of Rs 7.7 lakh crore. It also pegs stressed corporate and SME debt at 22 percent of total bank credit. Meanwhile, the railways will launch shortly its redesigned e-tendering system with more user-friendly new features to facilitate digital participation of over 60,000 vendors.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red as mounting political uncertainty in the U.S. exacerbated concerns among investors as to whether President Donald Trump would be able to deliver on key pro-growth policies. Asian markets were also trading in red. Back home, in scrip specific development, Hindustan Copper traded jubilantly after the company received an approval on fund raising plan. The board has recommended issues of fresh equity shares through Further Public Offer (FPO) or Institutional Placement Programme (IIP) or Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) or a combination of the routes as per extend guidelines, to a extend of 9.25 crore equity shares (10% of existing paid up equity capital). 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 30555.14, down by 103.63 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 30436.56 and 30575.83. There were 10 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.25%, while Small cap index was down by 0.94%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.50% and TECK up by 0.98%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.82%, Realty down by 1.81%, Basic Materials down by 1.63%, Metal down by 1.48% and Capital Goods down by 1.41% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 3.47%, Wipro up by 2.89%, Lupin up by 1.54%, Infosys up by 0.98% and ICICI Bank up by 0.90%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.76%, Tata Motors down by 1.69%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.68%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.41% and Reliance Industries down by 1.29% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid rising worries over job losses due to the ongoing H-1B visa troubles, industry body, the Associated Chambers of Commerce of India (Assocham) has said that the Indian IT and BPM industry should shift their focus on domestic opportunities, noting that this is time to redraw strategy that gives a good look at the home market, which can more than make up at least in the short to medium term, for the possible dent on jobs in the disruptive overseas markets.

Assocham’s secretary general DS Rawat claimed 'lakhs of new jobs' can be created through the focus on domestic opportunity which can make up for the losses due to upheavals in global markets and changing technologies. The industry body has said government's financial inclusion programmes like Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and Aadhar based service delivery models offer interesting job opportunities in the country itself and added that an increased focus on the domestic front will be a win-win move for both the country as well as the IT industry. Besides, it has said that data generated by PMJDY and its linkages with Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) can be a delight for different set of analytics and can be used to help the fast moving consumer goods, auto, telecom, insurance, agriculture sectors.

As per Assocham, the Indian IT-BPM industry employs about four million young workforce in the country in over 16,000 companies and 60 per cent of the current work done by the Indian IT industry is for global companies in the banking, financial services and insurance sector.  It has cited factors like huge Internet base (400 million) and said that increasing adoption of digital payments that will further fuel the growth of technology uptake in the country.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9460.70, down by 65.05 points or 0.68% after trading in a range of 9445.25 and 9489.10. There were 11 stocks advancing against 40 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were TCS up by 3.21%, Wipro up by 2.20%, Lupin up by 1.37%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.10% and Infosys up by 0.94%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 3.06%, Ultratech Cement down by 2.71%, Bharti Infratel down by 2.47%, Hindalco down by 2.44% and Grasim Industries down by 2.42% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 261.02 points or 1.32% to 19,553.86, Hang Seng decreased 157.11 points or 0.62% to 25,136.52, Taiwan Weighted decreased 44.22 points or 0.44% to 9,969.45, Shanghai Composite decreased 14.3 points or 0.46% to 3,090.14, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 10.91 points or 0.61% to 1,764.74 and KOSPI Index decreased 6.26 points or 0.27% to 2,286.82. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite increased 19.3 points or 0.34% to 5,634.79.

All the European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 67.72 points or 0.54% to 12,563.89, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 59.09 points or 0.79% to 7,444.38 and France’s CAC decreased 34.33 points or 0.65% to 5,283.56.