Markets pare gains to trade marginally in green; Realty top loser

Key Indian benchmarks pared gains in late morning session, on the back of weak cues from other Asian markets along with heavy selling in Realty, Healthcare and PSU stocks. Sluggish broader markets and major industry losers like Mahindra & Mahindra, Sun Pharma and Maruti Suzuki, also weighed on the sentiments. Anxiety remained among the investors, after recent developments with the loan fraud in PNB. The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested three more employees of PNB on Monday over a $1.77 billion loan fraud, and the government said the scandal exposed a supervisory failure by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). However, the indices managed to keep their head above water, aided by gains in Consumer Durables, IT and TECK stocks. Some support also came with the commerce minister Suresh Prabhu’s statement that the government will soon come out with a comprehensive strategy to increase the share of exports to 40% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and is expected to touch $5 trillion by 2025. Separately, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that government’s budget reforms have created a new work culture and they are transforming the socio-economic landscape of the country.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, following the weak cues overnight from European markets and in the absence of any lead from Wall Street, which was closed for a public holiday. Back home, in scrip specific developments, Suven Life Sciences moved up after the company secured one product patent from India and one product patent from South Korea corresponding to the New Chemical Entities (NCEs) for the treatment of disorders associated with Neurodegenerative diseases and these Patents are valid through 2029 and 2033 respectively.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33812.93, up by 38.27 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 33753.50 and 33960.95. There were 15 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index slipped 0.17%, while Small cap index was down by 0.18%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.89%, IT up by 0.82%, TECK up by 0.80%, Metal up by 0.48% and Telecom was up by 0.46%, while Realty down by 1.23%, Healthcare down by 0.50%, PSU down by 0.35%, Energy down by 0.33% and Auto was down by 0.28% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 1.27%, TCS up by 1.21%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.03%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 0.82% and HDFC up by 0.70%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.99%, Sun Pharma down by 0.82%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.81%, Reliance Industries down by 0.57% and ICICI Bank down by 0.56% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a bid to give a fillip to clean energy sources, the government has extended the period to avail transmission charge waivers for the solar and wind power projects. The projects commissioned on or before March 2022 can use the inter-state transmission system (ISTS) for free. For wind and solar projects, the existing waiver was previously applicable to projects commissioned up to March 31, 2019 and December 31, 2019, respectively. The waiver was available for a period of 25 years from the date of commissioning of such projects.

According to an order issued by the power ministry, for generation projects based on solar and wind resources, no ISTS charges and losses will be levied on transmission of the electricity through inter-state transmission system for sale of power by such projects commissioned till March 31, 2022. The order also provides that the waiver would be available to only those projects which are awarded through competitive bidding process. Earlier, the incentive was not available to firms other than power distribution companies. Thus, other entities procuring clean energy from these projects were at disadvantageous position, now they can also avail the benefit.

The order also provides that these new conditions for wavier of transmission charges and losses irrespective of purchasing entity will be applicable prospectively, the order dated February 13, 2018. The order assumes significance in view of India’s ambitious target of raising renewable energy capacities to 175 GW by 2022 including 100 GW of solar and 60 GW of wind energy. At present, India’s installed renewable generation capacity is 62.84GW excluding large hydro projects above 25MW.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10382.70, up by 4.30 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 10358.50 and 10429.35. There were 19 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Vedanta up by 1.69%, TCS up by 1.25%, Infosys up by 1.24%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.07% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.07%. On the flip side, Aurobindo Pharma down by 1.72%, Cipla down by 0.99%, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 0.94%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.81% and UPL down by 0.81% were the top losers.

Asian Markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 237.09 points or 1.07% to 21,912.12, Hang Seng decreased 104.74 points or 0.34% to 31,010.69, Jakarta Composite decreased 42.98 points or 0.64% to 6,646.30, KOSPI Index decreased 31.24 points or 1.28% to 2,411.58 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 1.04 points or 0.06% to 1,856.28.