Indian bourses continue to trade lower; Bharti Airtel extends losses

Key barometer gauges continued weak trend in early afternoon session, with the Sensex losing around 97 points and Nifty trading below the 10,050 level, on the back of sustained selling activities by market-participants. Sentiments remained subdued with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that lending rate of 14-15 per cent will make India uncompetitive in the global market and industry cannot invest at such higher interest rates. The losses at Dalal Street were mainly led by persistent selling in Telecom, Healthcare, Energy and TECK sector stocks despite firm Asian cues. Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha has passed the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2017, which gives RBI the power to direct banking companies to resolve specific stressed assets by initiating insolvency resolution process. In scrip specific development, GAIL (India) was up by over a percent after commencing 100% construction work in Kerala stretch of KKMBPL Project.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, though gains were modest, with investors treading cautiously ahead of the release of the closely watched US monthly jobs report later in the day. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32140.67, down by 97.21 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 32107.99 and 32252.45. There were 15 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.13%, while Small cap index was down by 0.14%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 4.07%, Metal up by 1.07%, PSU up by 0.73%, Basic Materials up by 0.46% and Oil & Gas up by 0.36%, while Telecom down by 1.80%, Healthcare down by 1.48%, Energy down by 0.67%, TECK down by 0.23% and Capital Goods down by 0.17% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 2.10%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.49%, Tata Steel up by 1.20%, NTPC up by 1.04% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.02%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 3.32%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.59%, Sun Pharma down by 2.48%, Reliance Industries down by 1.97% and Lupin down by 1.59% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, global airlines’ body the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has stated that India's domestic air passenger traffic surged by 20.3% in June as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year, the highest among major aviation markets like Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, Russia and the US. The demand is measured in terms of total revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs.

IATA has mentioned that domestic India RPKs surged by 18.6% in year-on-year terms in H1 2017, with annual RPK posting its 34th consecutive month of double-digit growth in June. However, it noted that the growth in the first half of 2017 was slightly slower than the year ago period. It also pointed out that the very strong upward traffic trend has slowed since the country’s unexpected demonetisation move in November 2016.

Global airline association further said that RPKs are still currently trending upwards, albeit at a slower annualised rate of around 7 percent. It added that domestic India's impressive run of double-digit year-on-year growth looks likely to have ended in July.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10000.95, down by 12.70 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 9988.35 and 10026.80. There were 30 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indian Oil Corp. up by 4.75%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.13%, Vedanta up by 1.98%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.53% and Tata Steel up by 1.34%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 3.18%, Tata Power down by 2.90%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.64%, Aurobindo Pharma down by 2.61% and Bosch down by 2.61% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Shanghai Composite increased 0.15 points or 0% to 3,273.08, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 0.38 points or 0.02% to 1,772.28, KOSPI Index added 8.6 points or 0.36% to 2,395.45, Jakarta Composite was up by 10.88 points or 0.19% to 5,791.45 and Taiwan Weighted surged 36.68 points or 0.35% to 10,506.56.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 76.93 points or 0.38% to 19,952.33 and Hang Seng was down by 5.14 points or 0.02% to 27,525.87.