Indian bourses continue to trade under pressure

Following weak Asian markets, Indian bourses continued their weak trade in early afternoon session, with selling in frontline blue chip counters. The mood of the markets remained impacted by report stating the country’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. The current account deficit had increased to $13.5 billion, or 2 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter as well, against $8 billion, or 1.4 per cent of GDP in the same year-ago period.  Besides, all the sectoral indices edged down on the bourses with Metal, Realty, and Basic Materials stocks falling the most. Traders overlooked a report stating that monsoon rains in India are likely to be unaffected by the El Nino weather pattern, which is likely to set in only after the four-month rainy season ends in September. In scrip specific development, Infosys was up by over half percent on investing additional $1.5 million in Waterline Data Science.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, as Donald Trump sparked fresh trade war fears by imposing huge tariffs on Chinese imports and Beijing unveiled its own measures against US goods. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32519.57, down by 486.70 points or 1.47% after trading in a range of 32488.90 and 32690.15. There were 2 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 2.10%, while Small cap index down by 2.37%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal down by 3.73%, Realty down by 3.46%, Basic Materials down by 3.10%, Bankex down by 2.22% and Industrials down by 2.06%, while there were no gainers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 0.39% and Coal India up by 0.37%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 4.41%, Yes Bank down by 3.84%, Axis Bank down by 3.64%, SBI down by 3.50% and Bajaj Auto down by 3.27% 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 9960.80, down by 153.95 points or 1.52% after trading in a range of 9954.40 and 10012.85. There were 4 stocks advancing against 46 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech. up by 1.32%, Bharti Infratel up by 1.28%, Coal India up by 0.28% and Infosys up by 0.10%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 4.88%, Tata Steel down by 4.42%, Hindalco down by 4.24%, Yes Bank down by 3.84% and Axis Bank down by 3.52% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in red; Hang Seng decreased 978.88 points or 3.15% to 30,092.17, Nikkei 225 dipped 974.13 points or 4.51% to 20,617.86, Taiwan Weighted was down by 182.51 points or 1.66% to 10,823.33, Shanghai Composite dropped 127.75 points or 3.91% to 3,135.73, Jakarta Composite shed 107.88 points or 1.73% to 6,146.19, KOSPI Index decreased 79.26 points or 3.18% to 2,416.76 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down by 15.39 points or 0.82% to 1,861.48.