Benchmarks continue to show a bearish trend

Mirroring weak global cues, Indian equity benchmarks continued to show a sluggish trend in late morning session, amidst a global sell off over concerns related to a trade war between the US and China. Investors fear that the US measures could escalate into a trade war, with potentially dire consequences for the global economy. Traders were concerned with India’s current account deficit (CAD) is likely to treble to $10-12 billion in the fourth quarter of the current financial year, against the same year-ago period, due to higher trade deficit. Meanwhile, the Delhi government has said that its fiscal deficit dropped to about one-third of the original estimate for the current fiscal after it carried forward Rs 1,969 crore of budgetary shortfall to 2018-19. This helped the state government limit the fiscal deficit (difference between expenditure and revenue) to Rs 887 crore in this fiscal ending March 31 from the budget estimate of Rs 2,856 crore.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red with Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on March 22, 2018 that could impose tariffs on up to $60 billion of imports from China, although the measures have a 30-day consultation period. Back on domestic turf, in scrip specific development with L&T Technology Services rose on bagging multi-million dollar project by Covestro to execute engineering transformational programs.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32577.70, down by 428.57 points or 1.30% after trading in a range of 32534.83 and 32690.15. There were 3 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index slips by 1.75%, while Small cap index was down by 1.96%.

The only gaining sectoral index on the BSE was IT up by 0.18%, while Realty down by 3.02%, Metal down by 2.81%, Basic Materials down by 2.58%, Bankex down by 2.14% and Industrials was down by 1.76% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The few gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 0.96%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.57% and Coal India was up by 0.41%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 3.79%, Tata Steel down by 3.17%, Bajaj Auto down by 3.05%, SBI down by 2.75% and Axis Bank was down by 2.74% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with a view to facilitate movement of goods across national borders and improve India’s ease of doing business rank, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has directed the commerce ministry to take immediate steps on streamlining trade operations. The country ranked 146th among 190 countries in the latest edition of the World Bank's Trading Across Borders component of ease of doing business. As the ranking in this parameter is not good, the PMO has directed the ministry to take steps in this direction.

The newly set up logistics division of the Department of Commerce is working to significantly improve the position in the next year’s report. As part of the steps, the ministry has written to all the major stakeholders, including ports, customs, regulatory bodies such as Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to give all approvals and clearances in a paperless manner. They have asked to give all clearances for exports and imports online. Paper transaction needs to be eliminated as it increases inefficiencies.

The move would significantly help in reducing both time and cost of traders for taking different kinds of approvals. Although the government has reduced mandatory documents required for import and export of goods to three documents each, it takes time to get approval. The ministry has also asked customs to carry out ‘direct port delivery’ for majority of consignments with a view to speed up cargo movement.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 9981.85, down by 132.90 points or 1.31% after trading in a range of 9961.30 and 10012.85. There were 6 stocks advancing against 44 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech up by 1.34%, Infosys up by 0.74%, Tech Mahindra up by 0.59%, Bharti Infratel up by 0.45% and Mahindra & Mahindra was up by 0.36%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 3.87%, Hindalco down by 3.69%, Vedanta down by 3.60%, Tata Steel down by 3.31% and SBI was down by 2.77% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 989.09 points or 4.58% to 20,602.90, Hang Seng down by 952.52 points or 3.07% to 30,118.53, Taiwan Weighted declined 182.51 points or 1.66% to 10,823.33, Shanghai Composite dropped 118.1 points or 3.62% to 3,145.38, Jakarta Composite downturned 107.88 points or 1.73% to 6,146.19, KOSPI Index descended 75.18 points or 3.01% to 2,420.84 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI slipped 12.49 points or 0.67% to 1,864.38