Sensex, Nifty remain flat; Broader indices perform better

Key Indian benchmarks continued to trade flat in late morning session, in the absence of cues from other Asian markets that are closed for public holiday. The markets managed to keep their head above water, amid report that the government has extended by 10 days the last date for filing of final sales return GSTR-1 till January 10 under the Goods and Services Tax. Some support also came with Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu’s assurance to formulate a national policy for retail trade to bring all verticals, including small business, big retail, e- commerce and direct selling under it. Further, the boarder indices were trading better than the larger peers, posting notable gains, while Realty and Healthcare indices rallied the most on the BSE. However, the gains were very limited as India’s fiscal deficit breached FY18 target at Nov-end by standing at 112% of Budget Estimates. The country’s fiscal deficit, the difference between government expenditure and revenue, stood at Rs 6.12 lakh crore for the period April-November 2017-18. Some anxiety also spread among the investors with the report stating that India’s external debt position surged by around 2.1 percent to $495.7 billion during July-September quarter (Q2 FY18), as compared to $485.8 billion reported for the end-June period.

On the global front, the Asian markets are closed for the day on account of National holiday. Back home, in scrip specific development, Dena Bank was trading higher after the bank received infusion of Rs 243 crore from Government of India, towards contribution of the Central Government in the preferential allotment of equity shares, on December 29, 2017.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34073.33, up by 16.50 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 34032.70 and 34101.13. There were 16 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.69%, while Small cap index was up by 1.01%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.37%, Healthcare up by 0.96%, Utilities up by 0.75%, Industrials up by 0.66% and Consumer Durables up by 0.64%, while TECK down by 0.21% and IT down by 0.20% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 1.81%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.25%, ITC up by 0.78%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.77% and Tata Motors up by 0.77%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.16%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.02%, ICICI Bank down by 0.62%, HDFC down by 0.42% and ONGC down by 0.33% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India’s external debt position surged by around 2.1 percent to $495.7 billion during July-September quarter (Q2 FY18), as compared to $485.8 billion reported for the end-June period. The rise in external debt was mainly due to the increase in foreign portfolio investment (FPI) in the debt segment of domestic capital market included under commercial borrowings. Apart from this, some rise in short-term debt primarily due to trade related credit also contributed to the overall increase in total external debt.

As per the data furnished by the finance ministry, the maturity pattern of India's external debt indicates dominance of long-term borrowings. It also indicated that at end-September 2017, long-term external debt accounted for 81.3 percent of India's total external debt, while the remaining (18.7 percent) was short-term external debt. Besides, the shares of Government (sovereign) and non- Government debt in the total external debt were 21.6 percent and 78.4 percent respectively, with the former's share increasing from 19.4 percent at end-March 2017.  It noted that this was mainly due to the increasing level of foreign portfolio investment in government securities.

The data further highlighted that US dollar denominated debt accounted for 50 percent of India’s total external debt at end-September 2017, followed by Indian rupee (35.7 percent), SDR (5.7 percent), Japanese Yen (4.4 percent), Euro (3.2 percent), Pound Sterling (0.6 percent), and others (0.4 percent). Besides, it showed that the foreign exchange cover to total external debt improved to 80.7 percent at end-September 2017 compared to 78.4 percent at end-March 2017.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10532.85, up by 2.15 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 10516.35 and 10537.85. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 3.13%, Sun Pharma up by 1.77%, Aurobindo Pharma up by 0.94%, ITC up by 0.78% and GAIL India up by 0.78%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 1.33%, TCS down by 1.16%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.04%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.73% and ICICI Bank down by 0.64% were the top losers.