Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks traded in negative territory for most part of the day and ended the session flat. The market breath was in favour of declines, with two stocks advancing against every three declining stocks. The equity benchmarks made a negative start in early deals with North Korea’s new provocative move of firing another ballistic missile over Japan. Traders also remained cautious with SBI research report which highlighted that the country’s GDP is likely to remain below 6% in the second quarter of 2017-18 owing to muted agriculture growth and sluggish performance of manufacturing and mining sector. The GDP stood at a three year low at 5.7% for April-June quarter of 2017-18, which the report said has raised concerns about the annual GDP numbers for the fiscal.

Separately, a United Nations report said that effects of demonetization and rollout of the Goods and Services Tax regime on the informal sector and reduction in pace of credit creation may affect India’s growth prospects and the country unlikely to serve as the growth pole’ for the global economy in the near future. Investors took note that CRISIL Ratings in its latest report has estimated the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) in the banking system to increase by 1 percentage point to 10.5% of advances as of March 2018, up from 9.5% as of March 2017. It said that about two-thirds of the overall stressed assets in the banking system has already been recognized by banks as NPAs as on March 31, 2017.

On the global front, Asian markets closed mostly in green. A poll showed that Japanese manufacturers’ confidence worsened for the first time in four months in September from the previous month's decade-high level and was expected to fall further, weighed by global uncertainty. The European markets were trading mostly in green, while UK’s market was down after a blast on a London underground train left some passengers with facial burns. A counter-terror investigation has been launched after an explosion sparked panic on a packed rush hour Tube train.

Back home, Information Technology (IT) stocks were buzzing in today’s trade after a senior US official sought to allay India’s concerns on the H-1B visa programme, which is being reviewed by the Trump administration, saying there are no restrictions in place. The official said around 70% of the visas issued under the H-1B category over the past nine months have gone to Indians and that a record 1.2 million visas of Indians were adjudicated by the US last year.

The BSE Sensex ended at 32258.83, up by 16.90 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 32138.38 and 32356.11. There were 13 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.42%, while Small cap index was up by 0.34%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.12%, TECK up by 0.88%, Metal up by 0.33%, Consumer Disc up by 0.23% and Energy up by 0.18%, while Power down by 1.08%, Utilities down by 0.69%, Realty down by 0.55%, Capital Goods down by 0.53% and Bankex down by 0.38% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 4.14%, Bajaj Auto up by 3.29%, Coal India up by 2.06%, Infosys up by 1.82% and Wipro up by 1.00%. (Provisional)
On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.87%, ITC down by 1.05%, NTPC down by 0.89%, SBI down by 0.69% and ICICI Bank down by 0.61% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, after the historic launch of India’s first bullet train project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, India and Japan have signed 15 key agreements including open sky agreement, to further expand the horizon of their bilateral relationship. The open sky agreement will allow the countries airlines to operate unlimited number of flights between the two countries.

Along with agreements like disaster risk management, international joint exchange program in science & technology and India-Japan Act East forum, the two nations also agreed to set up a working group to boost civil nuclear ties, reaffirming their commitment to work together for India to become a full member in multilateral export control regimes such as the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), Wassenaar Arrangement and the Australia Group.

Besides, in order to accelerate and facilitate Japanese investments in India, an agreement was signed between the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. To implement the commercial arrangement of ‘Cool EMS’ service, one more agreement was signed between India Post and Japan Post which will help to send fresh food from Japan to India in cool boxes for Japanese expatriates in India.

The CNX Nifty ended at 10085.40, down by 1.20 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 10043.65 and 10115.15. There were 21 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 4.33%, Bajaj Auto up by 3.47%, Coal India up by 2.23%, Infosys up by 1.81% and Bharti Infratel up by 1.35%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 2.00%, IndusInd Bank down by 1.61%, Aurobindo Pharma down by 1.31%, Tata Power down by 1.17% and ACC down by 1.13% were the top losers. (Provisional)

The European markets were trading mostly in green; Germany’s DAX increased 18.89 points or 0.15% to 12,559.34, France’s CAC increased 9.37 points or 0.18% to 5,234.57, while UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 63.07 points or 0.86% to 7,232.32.

Asian equity markets ended mostly higher on Friday. Japanese shares shrugged off a weak start to end modestly higher as the dollar regained its footing against the yen after sliding in early trading. Meanwhile, North Korea's latest missile launch over the Japanese archipelago earlier in the day stirred new worries and stronger-than-expected US inflation data stoked expectations of another Fed rate hike this year. Japan's PM Shinzo Abe said his country would ‘never tolerate’ North Korea's dangerous actions. Rex Tillerson, US secretary of state, said that these continued provocations only deepen North Korea's diplomatic and economic isolation. Chinese shares ended lower as a slew of soft data suggested the world’s second-largest economy is starting to lose some momentum in the face of rising borrowing costs and government-mandated capacity cuts.