Bourses continue lackluster trade in late afternoon deals

The local equity benchmarks continued their lackluster trade in late afternoon session, amid weak opening in European markets coupled with heavy sell-off in Telecom and Metal stocks. Besides, factors like expiry of futures and options contracts for the month of March and profit booking on the last trading day for the current financial year 2017-18 before the long term capital gains tax (LTCG) kicks in from April 2, 2018,  also weighed on the sentiments. The markets also remained under pressure, as the government’s revenue collection under Goods and Services Tax (GST) decreased marginally by 1.33% to Rs 85,174 crore (received up to March 26) in the month of February, as against Rs 86,318 crore in January, for the second straight month. Separately, government’s Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian has said that he wanted a simpler GST structure. He also said that once the GST Council is confident that the revenue through indirect tax is stabilising, it will do more simplification future.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street, where heightened concerns about tighter controls on the tech industry hit stocks hard. Asian markets were also trading in red. Back home, in scrip specific development, Hinduja Global Solutions traded higher after its subsidiary -- HGS Population Health LLC, USA entered into a definitive agreement to acquire CMH Services Subsidiary LLC, USA, operating under the trade name of AxisPoint Health, a leading population health management company.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33008.81, down by 165.58 points or 0.50% after trading in a range of 32946.04 and 33104.11. 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 0.47%, while Small cap index was down by 0.86%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 0.19%, Consumer Durables up by 0.19%, FMCG up by 0.06% and IT up by 0.05%, while Telecom down by 2.15%, Metal down by 1.78%, Realty down by 1.36%, Basic Materials down by 1.25% and Energy down by 0.92% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 2.53%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.52%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.31%, TCS up by 0.91% and Coal India up by 0.22%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 3.93%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.73%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 2.52%, ICICI Bank down by 1.67% and Reliance Industries down by 1.56% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid intense pricing competition among telecom companies, the ratings agency, ICRA in its latest report has said that the recovery in the telecom sector is likely to be prolonged and the companies may see the pressure on their cash flows for few more quarters.

The rating agency has said that price competition in the sector is expected to continue to remain intense as the larger operators are contesting to acquire subscribers of the exiting telcos and added that the revenues and OPBDITA of the sector may fall by 13% and 34% respectively, in financial year 2017-18 (FY2018). However, it expects recovery in revenues and profitability of telecom sector by end of financial year 2018-19 (FY2019) and is also expecting reduction in the industry debt levels to Rs 4.3 lakh crore by FY2019 from the estimation of Rs 4.7 lakh crore as on March 31, 2018, on the back of asset monetisation and increased promoter support.

Besides, on the long term basis, ICRA expects recovery in the sector, on the back of a consolidated structure, better pricing power and data usage with greater price-inelasticity. It also noted that larger telcos are getting an opportunity from the exit of smaller telcos to garner subscribers and the competition for them remains intense.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10139.05, down by 45.10 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 10112.55 and 10154.95. There were 17 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remained unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra up by 2.27%, GAIL India up by 2.10%, Wipro up by 2.03%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.73% and Bosch up by 1.48%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 3.94%, Bharti Airtel down by 3.28%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 2.71%, Hindalco down by 1.72% and Reliance Industries down by 1.61% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in red; Hang Seng decreased 768.3 points or 2.5% to 30,022.53, Nikkei 225 decreased 286.01 points or 1.34% to 21,031.31, Taiwan Weighted decreased 121.13 points or 1.1% to 10,865.66, Jakarta Composite decreased 66.95 points or 1.08% to 6,142.40, Shanghai Composite decreased 44.36 points or 1.4% to 3,122.29, KOSPI Index decreased 32.77 points or 1.34% to 2,419.29 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 3.1 points or 0.17% to 1,859.35.

All European markets were trading in red; Germany’s DAX decreased 177.3 points or 1.48% to 11,793.53, France’s CAC decreased 72.52 points or 1.42% to 5,043.22 and UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 71.81 points or 1.03% to 6,928.33.