Markets hover near day’s low; Sensex below 31,800 mark

Indian equity benchmarks continued their southward journey to hover near intraday low in late morning session, on continuous selling by investors in Realty, Telecom and Capital Goods counters, taking weak cues from Asian markets. Traders took note of report stating that India's total public debt (excluding liabilities under the public account) increased by 3.6 percent to Rs 63.35 lakh crore at the end of June 2017. The debt of the government was Rs 61.13 lakh crore at the end of March 2017. Some concern came with the private report that global brokerage firm lowered India’s GDP growth forecast to 6.6 percent for this fiscal from 7.2 percent earlier. However, it said that the growth is expected to pick up in coming quarters as the economy normalizes post implementation of the GST.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red on escalating geopolitical tensions after North Korea’s latest nuclear test on Sunday. Back home, in scrip specific development, Kellton Tech Solutions was trading higher after the company won the prestigious ‘Early Digital Learning Program (EDLP)’ project of the Republic of Mauritius from EdCIL, a Government of India Mini Ratna Enterprise. The project involves Supply, Commissioning, and Maintenance of Tablet based Learning programs in Mauritius. The order value is estimated to be around Rs 62 crore.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 31750.20, down by 142.03 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 31749.14 and 31932.20. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 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 0.33%, while Small cap index was down by 0.24%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.38%, Energy up by 0.26% and Metal up by 0.06%, while Telecom down by 1.13%, Realty down by 0.99%, Industrials down by 0.75%, Capital Goods down by 0.68% and Power down by 0.62% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 2.54%, Reliance Industries up by 0.72%, ONGC up by 0.56%, Lupin up by 0.55% and SBI up by 0.22%. On the flip side, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 2.41%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.50%, Asian Paints down by 1.40%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.38% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.19% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the finance ministry has given its nod to four Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) proposals, worth Rs 503.40 crore in the previous two months. The proposals approved, include AMP Solar India that alone will bring investment of Rs 500 crore. One proposal of CVC Asia of entailing investment of Rs 3.32 crore got approval. CVC Asia plans to set up an investment advisory entity exempt from registration with capital market regulator SEBI. Besides, proposals of Aditya Birla Capital and Firstspace Development Management were also cleared by the department.

Inflow of FDI into India increased by 9 percent to record level of $43.48 billion in 2016-17 on account of reform measures undertaken by the government. In May this year, the Union Cabinet decided to abolish the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) -- an advisory body comprising of secretaries to various departments for vetting of FDI applications and making recommendations to the government.

The government officially abolished the FIPB in June. It was decided that the approvals would be handled independently by administrative ministries of different sectors. The FIPB was set up after India embarked on its first market reforms in 1991. It was initially constituted under the Prime Minister's Office and subsequently shifted under the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9928.30, down by 46.10 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 9928.20 and 9988.40. There were 14 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 2.41%, Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 2.02%, Reliance Industries up by 0.70%, Bosch up by 0.64% and ONGC up by 0.63%. On the flip side, Indian Oil Corporation down by 3.12%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 2.60%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.72%, Tata Power down by 1.69% and Asian Paints down by 1.51% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 176.9 points or 0.9% to 19,514.57, Hang Seng decreased 156.01 points or 0.56% to 27,797.15, Jakarta Composite decreased 34.47 points or 0.59% to 5,829.59, Taiwan Weighted decreased 24.95 points or 0.24% to 10,569.87 and KOSPI Index decreased 22.77 points or 0.97% to 2,334.92.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite increased 9.51 points or 0.28% to 3,376.63 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 12.02 points or 0.68% to 1,773.16.