Markets remain in red amid weak Asian cues

Key benchmark indices continued their weak trade in early afternoon session, on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters and taking cues from weak Asian markets after North Korea launched another missile over Japan. Sentiments remained subdued with SBI’s research report stating that country’s GDP is likely to remain below 6 percent in the second quarter of 2017-18 owing to muted agriculture growth and sluggish performance of manufacturing and mining sector. Some cautiousness also came with UN report that the informal sector was badly affected by the government’s ‘demonetization’ move, and it may be further affected by the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax regime. Further, selling witnessed in Realty, Power and Utilities stocks, too weighed on the sentiments. In scrip specific development, Ujaas Energy was up by over six percent after receiving LOA from Oil India for EPC contract for Solar Energy Generation project of 500 KW at Pump Station of Oil India at Jorhat in the state of Assam.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, on rising geopolitical tensions after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over the Japanese archipelago earlier in the day, its second launch within a month. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32190.80, down by 51.13 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 32138.38 and 32245.28. There were 12 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.50%, while Small cap index was down by 0.18%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.56%, Telecom up by 0.52% and TECK up by 0.48%, while Realty down by 1.39%, Power down by 1.27%, Utilities down by 0.87%, Healthcare down by 0.72% and Metal down by 0.63% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 3.20%, Infosys up by 1.08%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.00%, Coal India up by 0.82% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.50%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 1.66%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.51%, Sun Pharma down by 1.21%, Cipla down by 0.92% and Axis Bank down by 0.85% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Textile Commissioner Kavita Gupta has said that the Indian technical textile market is expected to grow at 12 percent per annum to reach $23 billion in the next two years from the present $18.16 billion. She noted that the use of Technical textiles is expanding globally and India comprises only 4 percent of the global technical textiles exports, and 3 percent imports. She also said that technical textile offers immense potential and has been termed as a sunrise industry in India. With sufficient investments into the technology, she believes that the industry would grow exponentially.

The commissioner has stated that India’s textiles sector is also one of the largest contributing sectors of India’s exports contributing 14 percent to the country’s total exports basket. She said that the size of India's textile market is expected to touch $250 billion in 2020 from current $150 billion. Adding further, she said that the industry employs about 51 million people directly and 68 million people indirectly as India has overtaken Italy and Germany to emerge as the world’s second largest textile exporter.

Gupta further said that in India technical textiles is expected to attract lot of investment opportunities. She also highlighted that in the last five years period the growth has been 12.4 percent CAGR. In addition, she said that demand for technical textiles is expected to stay steady during the period 2017-2020, due to a broadening application in end-use industries, such as automotive, construction, healthcare, and sports equipment and so on. Besides, she said that the government is offering 15 percent subsidy for domestic players, who want to set up machinery and added that the government has also set up eight Centers for Excellence units to foster research & development in the sector.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10056.60, down by 30.00 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 10043.65 and 10083.90. There were 13 stocks advancing against 38 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 3.29%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.27%, Infosys up by 1.07%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 0.94% and Coal India up by 0.84%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 2.08%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.64%, Vedanta down by 1.55%, Sun Pharma down by 1.37% and Tata Power down by 1.23% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Shanghai Composite decreased 21.25 points or 0.63% to 3,350.17, Jakarta Composite dipped 16.08 points or 0.27% to 5,835.92, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 4.15 points or 0.23% to 1,777.22 and Hang Seng shed 2.76 points or 0.01% to 27,774.44.

On the flip side, KOSPI Index increased 8.41 points or 0.35% to 2,386.07, Taiwan Weighted added 26.84 points or 0.25% to 10,580.41 and Nikkei 225 rose 102.06 points or 0.52% to 19,909.50.