Bourses remain sluggish; Oil & Gas, Energy stocks fall

Key Indian benchmarks remained sluggish in late morning session, tracking weak cues from other Asian markets. Heavy selling in Oil & Gas, Energy and PSU stocks along with weak broader markets, weighted on the sentiments. Cautiousness continued on the street owing to the expiry of February F&O contracts later in the day. Besides, market participants remained wary with report that minutes from the Reserve Bank of India’s meeting this month showed monetary policy committee members expressing concerns about accelerating inflation, although that was also tempered by uncertainty about the strength of an economic recovery. Some concerns also came with US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Chief’s statement that the recently announced rise in minimum support price of agri commodities by the government is not the best way to increase farmers' income. Investors shrugged off report that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India grew marginally by 0.27 percent to $35.94 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal year 2017-18. Separately, the State Bank of India (SBI) Research in its latest report has said that Indian economy is likely to grow in the range of 6.5-7 percent during the third quarter of the current fiscal year 2017-18. It also said that the country’s economy in fourth quarter of FY18 may grow by 7 percent.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, following the negative cues overnight from Wall Street after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's January meeting indicated the central bank still plans to raise interest rates three times in 2018. Back home, in scrip specific development, Ramco Systems gained the traction after the company entered into partnership with ITOrizon Inc to help enterprises make smarter business decisions and drive excellent customer success.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33755.86, down by 89.00 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 33691.56 and 33817.09. There were 9 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.21%, while Small cap index was down by 0.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 0.56%, IT up by 0.56%, TECK up by 0.20% and Realty up by 0.10%, while Oil & Gas down by 1.59%, Energy down by 0.98%, PSU down by 0.92%, Telecom down by 0.69% and Auto down by 0.65% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.72%, Yes Bank up by 0.91%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 0.64%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.57% and Indusind Bank up by 0.53%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 2.16%, ONGC down by 2.16%, Axis Bank down by 1.04%, Asian Paints down by 1.03% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.94% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, NITI Aayog’s CEO Amitabh Kant has said that the Aayog is working on a new list of sick and loss-making public sector undertakings (PSUs) that could be privatized. He said that they have already sent four lists of sick PSUs and are working on the fifth list, and added that they will also prepare sixth and seventh list of sick PSUs.

Kant has stated that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had asked the government think-tank to look into the viability of sick state-run companies. He also pointed out that the Aayog has already recommended 40 sick PSUs for strategic disinvestment. He noted that Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) is working on it and the process is on advanced stage.

During the financial year 2017-18, the government raised around Rs 1 lakh crore from PSU disinvestment and set a target of Rs 80,000 crore for FY19. In the Union Budget presented on February 1 last year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had set the target of disinvestment in public sector units at Rs 72,500 crore. This included Rs 46,500 crore as disinvestment of CPSEs, Rs 15,000 crore from strategic disinvestment and Rs 11,000 crore from listing of insurance companies. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10360.05, down by 37.40 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 10340.65 and 10365.05. There were 14 stocks advancing against 36 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 2.52%, HCL Tech up by 1.65%, Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 1.60%, Aurobindo Pharma up by 1.58% and Tech Mahindra up by 0.92%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 4.48%, ONGC down by 2.18%, Bharti Infratel down by 2.04%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 2.03% and Bosch down by 1.82% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 269.44 points or 0.86% to 31,162.45, Nikkei 225 decreased 256.39 points or 1.17% to 21,714.42, Taiwan Weighted decreased 52.06 points or 0.49% to 10,662.38, Jakarta Composite decreased 27.93 points or 0.42% to 6,615.47, KOSPI Index decreased 14.3 points or 0.59% to 2,415.35 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 1.35 points or 0.07% to 1,856.82.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite increased 68.31 points or 2.14% to 3,267.47.