Bourses manage to keep their heads above water in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks managed to keep their heads above water in early afternoon session, on the back of buying by funds and retail investors. Traders were taking support from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement who called upon entrepreneurs from across the globe to make India their base for the world. He said that India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing economies and a happening place with immense opportunities in a number of areas. Besides, gains in Realty, Telecom and Capital Goods stocks together with hopes of recovery in GDP growth number for September quarter, too aided the sentiments. However, gains were capped as some concern came with a private report stating that both goods and services tax (GST) collections as well as its compliance in the first four months since the rollout of the new tax regime remain well be below the target, and the situation is unlikely to improve in the near- term. In scrip specific development, Bharti Airtel was up by over half a percent on entering into a partnership with US-based online education and learning company Coursera.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, with investor sentiment boosted by the record closing highs overnight on Wall Street following progress on US tax reform, upbeat economic data and remarks by Federal Reserve chair nominee Jerome Powell to the Senate Banking Committee. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33646.71, up by 28.12 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 33612.34 and 33690.92. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.08%, while Small cap index was up by 0.44%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.18%, Telecom up by 0.62%, Capital Goods up by 0.55%, Industrials up by 0.49% and Healthcare up by 0.42%, while Power down by 0.08%, Bankex down by 0.04%, Utilities down by 0.04%, Basic Materials down by 0.04% and IT down by 0.04% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 1.91%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.80%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.80%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 0.65% and ONGC up by 0.61%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.41%, HDFC down by 0.84%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.27%, TCS down by 0.26% and Infosys down by 0.23% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the ministry of finance has said that India’s news Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) ordinance, promulgated by the President, will pave the way for clean business by putting a premium on integrity. It pointed out that the ordinance does not seek to provide any respite to loan defaulters while on the other hand it explicitly prohibits them and their associates from reclaiming assets under resolution at a discount. It added that the ordinance is primarily aimed at safeguarding the public money from being misused by dishonest businesses.

Observing that there were reports that some defaulting promoters were trying to buy assets at huge discounts in clandestine manner, the ministry said that it was moral and ethical responsibility to prohibit entry of such misuse of public money. It also said that business will have to either perform or exit and there is absolutely no room for wilful defaulters or dishonest business. It added that the move is against unscrupulous elements in the business who were using the banks' money irresponsibly.

It also said that despite defaults, the accounts were not realistically declared non-performing assets (NPAs) and were kept under the carpet by restructuring them through further financing. It noted that the ordinance will ensure recovery of bank loans from defaulting corporates and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has already taken steps to recover Rs 1.75 lakh crore from 12 corporates under the insolvency law. It added that banks have already filed cases in National Company Law Tribunal for resolution of these 12 cases of big default, which is about 25 percent of the total NPAs.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10376.70, up by 6.45 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 10364.10 and 10392.00. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bosch up by 3.41%, Coal India up by 2.19%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.02%, Bharti Infratel up by 1.02% and GAIL India up by 0.96%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.44%, HPCL down by 1.07%, UPL down by 0.93%, HDFC down by 0.87% and Hindalco down by 0.78% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI rose 2.94 points or 0.17% to 1,717.36, Shanghai Composite surged 4.21 points or 0.13% to 3,337.86, Taiwan Weighted added 6.48 points or 0.06% to 10,713.55, Hang Seng was up by 14.9 points or 0.05% to 29,695.75 and Nikkei 225 increased 110.96 points or 0.49% to 22,597.20.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite decreased 18.14 points or 0.3% to 6,052.57 and KOSPI Index was down by 1.29 points or 0.05% to 2,512.90.