Sensex, Nifty starts trading in red in afternoon deals

Indian equities erased their initial gains and started trading in red in afternoon session due to heavy selling in Consumer Durables, Auto, Basic Materials and realty stocks. The euphoria of progress on the GST front fizzled out. The GST Council has finalized tax rates on 1211 items, under the four-slab structure with essential items of daily use being kept in the lowest bracket of 5 percent. The most of the items will likely become cheaper as the new rates will be lower than the current effective levies. The Council in the opening session of the two-day meeting also approved rules for the rollout of the new indirect tax regime from July 1, 2017.  Besides, depreciation in rupee value against the dollar too weighed on the sentiments. Piling on yesterday’s loss, Indian rupee weakened by another 12 paise to 64.95 against the US dollar on increased demand for the American currency from importers. In scrip specific development, Idea cellular was up by around a percent after entering into a tie-up with Flipkart whereby it will offer variety of 4G data plans for customers who buy smartphones from Flipkart platform.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green as traders overlooked uncertainties surrounding President Donald Trump after reports he tried to influence a federal investigation. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 30360.26, down by 74.53 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 30338.52 and 30712.35. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.46%, while Small cap index was down by 1.12%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 2.24%, Telecom up by 0.23% and Power up by 0.11%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.88%, Auto down by 1.46%, Basic Materials down by 1.42%, Realty down by 1.37% and Consumer Disc down by 1.31% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 3.72%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.68%, SBI up by 1.29%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.81% and Cipla up by 0.69%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.72%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.62%, Asian Paints down by 1.49%, HDFC down by 1.31% and GAIL India down by 1.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the government is modifying '2011 vintage' national manufacturing policy (NMP) in order to align it with initiatives like 'Make in India' along with Industrial Revolution 4.0, which refers to high end automation. She also said that the NMP is of 2011 vintage, which envisaged that manufacturing should contribute 25 percent in India’s economic growth by 2022. She noted that currently, the sector contributes 16-17 percent to the country’s GDP growth.

She has stated that they have initiated the process to revamp the policy and also instructed the secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) to get into the details of that. She also said that it is necessary to modify the policy as in the last three years, the government has taken a host of initiatives like 'Make in India', 'Digital India' and 'Skill India' and significantly relaxed foreign investment policy. Adding further, she explained that the revamped policy is also necessary as the government has to protect the interest of all segments of industry whether it is highly or partly automated and SMEs which are yet to adopt modern technologies. 

The minister further said that initiatives taken by the government like 'Make in India' are aimed at making India a manufacturing hub and they ought to find a place in the national manufacturing policy. She also said that there should be some coherence. Therefore, she said that they have instructed DIPP to get all these initiatives coming into this narrative in the context of three years of Make in India and added that the policy should be relevant.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9397.85, down by 31.60 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 9390.75 and 9505.75. There were 13 stocks advancing against 38 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ITC up by 3.78%, Yes Bank up by 1.87%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.35%, SBI up by 1.19% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.82%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 3.87%, Indiabulls Housing down by 2.52%, Bosch down by 1.78%, TCS down by 1.74% and Eicher Motors down by 1.72% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; KOSPI Index increased 1.66 points or 0.07% to 2,288.48, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI surged 3.3 points or 0.19% to 1,770.47, Jakarta Composite added 22.12 points or 0.39% to 5,667.57, Nikkei 225 was up by 36.9 points or 0.19% to 19,590.76 and Hang Seng rose 76.63 points or 0.3% to 25,213.15.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted decreased 21.83 points or 0.22% to 9,947.62 and Shanghai Composite was down by 1.78 points or 0.06% to 3,088.36.