Benchmarks trade flat in morning session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade flat in the morning session in absence of any upside buying triggers. The rupee firmed up against the dollar taking cues from a higher opening in the domestic stock market. Traders remained on sidelines after the statistics from FICCI’s quarterly survey on manufacturing suggests slightly less optimistic outlook for the manufacturing sector in the Q3 (October- December 2017-18) as the percentage of respondents reporting higher production in third quarter has fallen in comparison to the previous quarter. The proportion of respondents reporting higher output growth during the Q3 (October- December 2017-18) has fallen to 47 from 50% in Q2. Investors took note that the government is likely to take a less conservative fiscal approach after the Gujarat elections and adopt a more populist tone in the upcoming Union Budget. A close contest in Gujarat elections means government will expedite the implementation of pro-poor/rural policies. Separately, supporting the idea of bringing petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and LPG (cooking gas) under the ambit of Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the government is in favour of this idea, but they are waiting for a consensus from the state governments in this respect.

Traders were seen piling up position in Realty, Auto and Industrials stocks, while selling was witnessed in Bankex, FMCG and Power sector stocks. In scrip specific development, MBL Infrastructure was trading in green after the Kolkata bench of the National Company Law Tribunal has ruled that the promoter of cash-strapped company is eligible to bid for its assets, clearing confusion over the position of non-defaulting promoters in saving their companies. Tata Teleservices Maharashtra (TTML) was trading in red after the company said that it could not meet its loan obligations and has sought a waiver of its payment dues from its lenders.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red amid cautious trades following the negative lead overnight from Wall Street and as investors awaited the final votes on the US tax reform bill. Back home, the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were trading above the psychological 33,800 and 10,450 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was positive in the ratio of 1501:759, while 128 scrips remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33845.34, up by 8.60 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 33767.72 and 33956.31. There were 14 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.37%, while Small cap index was up by 0.86%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.16%, Auto up by 0.84%, Industrials up by 0.79%, Consumer Disc up by 0.75% and Consumer Durables up by 0.64%, while Bankex down by 0.14%, FMCG down by 0.12%, Power down by 0.06%, Telecom down by 0.05% and PSU down by 0.05% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 2.30%, ONGC up by 2.19%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.51%, Tata Motors up by 1.40% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.15%.

On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.61%, Tata Steel down by 1.49%, Power Grid down by 1.11%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.98% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.82% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, highlighting the importance of services sector in improving the condition of exports, the Commerce & Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu has said that the government is working on a strategy to boost share of services in total exports from the country. He said that “In my opinion services should be one of the most critical drivers of the growing economy and must be brought to the forefront”.

The Minister addressing a meeting on the services sector organised by industry body CII, said that the country needs to identify new services which have tremendous export potential such as healthcare and financial services and within that develop new products which could be exported. He also suggested that sectors such as IT should look at developing newer markets such as Latin America as markets like the US and Europe were becoming saturated.

The services sector contributes 60 per cent of India’s GDP, 30 per cent of India’s exports and just 30 per cent of India’s jobs. Seprately the minister briefing on the outcome of the WTO’s recently held Buenos Aires meeting, said that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) process needs to be strengthened and taken forward as India has a strategic interest in the functioning of the multilateral trade system.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10461.55, down by 1.65 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 10440.75 and 10494.45. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 2.11%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.08%, GAIL India up by 1.69%, Tata Motors up by 1.36% and Lupin up by 1.35%.

On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 1.53%, Tata Steel down by 1.52%, HPCL down by 1.19%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.17% and Power Grid down by 0.99% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Jakarta Composite decreased 64.47 points or 1.05% to 6,103.20, Hang Seng decreased 10.76 points or 0.04% to 29,242.90, KOSPI Index decreased 3.4 points or 0.14% to 2,475.13 and Shanghai Composite decreased 1.31 points or 0.04% to 3,295.23.

On the other hand, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 12.24 points or 0.7% to 1,749.19, Nikkei 225 increased 12.38 points or 0.05% to 22,880.38 and Taiwan Weighted increased 39.41 points or 0.38% to 10,506.75.