Bourses struggle to keep their head above water in afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks were struggling to keep their head above water in early afternoon session, despite some value buying in Realty, Healthcare and Consumer Disc counters. There was some support with a private report stating that economic activity in the country lost some pace amid GST related disruptions but underlying growth momentum remains strong and the country may clock 6.7 percent growth this fiscal. Some support also came with the principal economic adviser in the finance ministry's statement that the government has dropped the idea of setting up a bad bank though solving NPA problem is the top priority for the government right now than consolidation as the government is keen on creating a long-term framework for strong and stable growth. Meanwhile, the broader markets gained strength with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices increasing by over half a percent. In scrip specific development, Hindustan Uniliver (HUL) was up by over half a percent after commencing commercial production at its personal care products unit at Doomdooma in the state of Assam on September 6, 2017.

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mixed, as investors remained cautious ahead of the European Central Bank's monetary policy announcement later in the day. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 31649.40, down by 12.57 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 31639.15 and 31814.96. There were 18 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.64%, while Small cap index was up by 0.63%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.23%, Healthcare up by 0.68%, Consumer Disc up by 0.61%, Metal up by 0.57% and Auto up by 0.54%, while Energy down by 0.39%, Oil & Gas down by 0.24%, Consumer Durables down by 0.18%, Power down by 0.07% and PSU down by 0.02% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 1.25%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.20%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.07%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.00% and Axis Bank up by 0.73%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.23%, NTPC down by 1.21%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.07%, Coal India down by 0.76% and HDFC down by 0.75% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, global airlines’ body the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has indicated that India lost the top position to neighbouring China and become world's second fastest growing domestic aviation market in the month of July this year. According to the IATA, China tops the domestic chart for just the second time in 28 months, however the upward trend in India has picked up. It added that passenger demand remains on course to grow steadily this year as a whole. 

IATA has noted that India registered a growth of 12.5% in July 2017, while China overtook India by registering 15% growth in the same period. The growth is measured in RPK (Revenue Passenger Kilometres) - an indicator of demand. It also highlighted that year-on-year growth in domestic India RPKs slowed to 12.5 percent in July - its slowest speed since November 2014. It also explained that a very strong month-on-month increase in seasonally-adjusted RPKs in July meant that yearly RPK growth managed to remain in double digits for the 35th consecutive month.

Global airlines’ body further mentioned that while the growth appears to have slowed in the opening months of 2017, the solid upward seasonally-adjusted traffic trend looks to have reasserted itself in recent months. As is the case in China, it pointed out that demand is still stimulated by sizeable increase in the number of domestic routes served. Globally, it stated that the easing in the seasonally-adjusted industry-wide RPK trend also reflects a reduced degree of stimulus to demand from lower airfares.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9921.65, up by 5.45 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 9917.20 and 9964.85. There were 30 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing up by 3.60%, Eicher Motors up by 1.96%, Sun Pharma up by 1.33%, Hindalco up by 1.32% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.25%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 1.44%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.23%, NTPC down by 1.12%, Tata Motors down by 1.05% and Cipla down by 0.90% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mixed; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 2.03 points or 0.11% to 1,774.51, KOSPI Index was up by 26.37 points or 1.14% to 2,346.19 and Nikkei 225 added 38.55 points or 0.2% to 19,396.52. On the flip side, Hang Seng dropped 86.21 points or 0.31% to 27,527.55, Shanghai Composite dipped 14.37 points or 0.42% to 3,371.02 and Taiwan Weighted shed 9.35 points or 0.09% to 10,538.51.