Bourses enter into red terrain

Key Indian benchmarks entered into red terrain in late morning session, on the back of heavy selling in PSU, Banking and Power stocks. Traders got wary with Care Ratings’ latest report stating that revenue growth of India Inc nearly halved to 9.3 per cent in the third quarter from 17.7 per cent a year-ago, due to a combination of factors, including the ongoing restocking process and adjustment to GST at the SME level. Similarly, net profit too clipped lower at 24.6 per cent for the three months to December 2017 from 25.3 per cent a year-ago. However, the losses were limited as traders took some comfort with report highlighting that India’s retail inflation cooled down to 5.07% in January 2018, due to easing prices of vegetables, fruits and fuel components. Besides, losses were also capped with report that India’s industrial output registered a growth of 7.1% in the month of December 2017, as compared to 2.4% in December 2016, led by robust performance by manufacturing as well as higher offtake of capital goods and non-durable consumer goods.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, after US stocks closing higher overnight for a third consecutive session, However, investors were cautious as they look ahead to a report on US consumer price inflation due on Wednesday to assess the likelihood for a faster pace of interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve. Back home, in scrip specific development, Wipro gained after the company’s arm Wipro Gallagher Solutions (WGS) unveiled latest version of its Loan Origination System (LOS), NetOxygen v5.1, which provides users the ability to look at various conditions associated with the loan and indicates the category of a condition, when a condition is due and the status of the condition.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34285.61, down by 14.86 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 34264.83 and 34473.43. There were 12 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.66%, while Small cap index was up by 0.88%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.45%, Industrials up by 0.79%, Capital Goods up by 0.79%, Metal up by 0.78% and Telecom up by 0.76%, while PSU down by 1.05%, Bankex down by 0.79%, Power down by 0.62%, Utilities down by 0.47% and Auto down by 0.07% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.52%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 2.44%, Wipro up by 2.21%, Coal India up by 1.67% and Reliance Industries up by 0.93%. On the flip side, SBI down by 2.18%, Power Grid Corporation down by 1.97%, Axis Bank down by 1.66%, ICICI Bank down by 1.63% and Yes Bank down by 1.60% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has expressed confidence that India’s Gross domestic product (GDP) growth will cross the 7.5 percent mark in the financial year 2018-19. He also believed that they will close this year upwards of 6.7 percent. Besides, he said “from the GDP growth of 5.3 or 6.3 per cent in the last two years of the UPA government, I think that the GDP that BJP-led NDA government has given to this nation is certainly a matter of great satisfaction for us.”

Goyal said that its first time he has heard that 5.9 percent fiscal deficit in 2011-12 was more fiscally prudent than 3.2 percent that the current government is targeting for the next year. He pointed out that this is new economics because it seems now that high fiscal deficit is fiscal prudence and low fiscal deficit is imprudence.

Recently, the RBI has lowered India’s economic growth projection for the current fiscal year 2017-18 to 6.6 percent from its previous projection of 6.7 percent in light of fresh production and corporate income data. But, it said that growth will accelerate to 7.2 percent in the fiscal year 2018-19, as the roll-out of goods and services tax (GST) stabilises and credit off-take improves. It also projected gross value added (GVA) growth in the range of 7.3-7.4 percent in H1 FY19 and 7.1-7.2 percent in H2 FY19 with risks evenly balanced.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10537.25, down by 2.50 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 10527.95 and 10590.55. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 3.74%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.87%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 2.71%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.45% and Tech Mahindra up by 2.26%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 3.74%, SBI down by 2.44%, Power Grid Corporation down by 2.19%, Axis Bank down by 1.90% and ICICI Bank down by 1.78% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 1.16 points or 0.06% to 1,834.18, Shanghai Composite increased 6.64 points or 0.21% to 3,191.59, KOSPI Index increased 22.12 points or 0.92% to 2,417.31 and Hang Seng increased 351.86 points or 1.18% to 30,191.39.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 97.26 points or 0.46% to 21,147.42 and Jakarta Composite decreased 1.1 points or 0.02% to 6,577.07.