Indian equities remain in red terrain

Indian equity benchmarks continued their trade in red territory in early afternoon session, following weak global equities and the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) hawkish stance in the monetary policy committee minutes. Sentiments remained downbeat with IMF chief Christine Lagarde’s statement that she does not expect the pace of economic reforms in India to continue in an election year. Moreover, rupee’s fall below the 66-mark against the dollar and higher global crude oil prices, too dampened investors’ sentiments. However, further losses got restricted with report that the PE investments witnessed a robust 46% jump in deal values at $ 1.3 billion in March, taking the total tally for the Q1 of 2018 to $ 4 billion, up 76% over the same period a year ago. On the sectoral front, IT stocks were outperforming the market led by TCS which was up by over 6 percent after posting better-than-expected results for the March quarter. The company has reported a rise of 4.48% in its consolidated net profit at Rs 6,904 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 as compared to Rs 6,608 crore for the corresponding quarter in the FY17.

On the global front, Asian Markets were trading in red, reflecting weakness in technology shares after chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing forecast weaker than expected second-quarter revenues due to softer demand for high-end smartphones. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34371.71, down by 55.58 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 34336.06 and 34453.71. There were 8 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.64%, while Small cap index was down by 0.19%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 3.97%, TECK up by 3.25% and Telecom up by 0.22%, while Metal down by 1.44%, Realty down by 1.09%, PSU down by 0.99%, Energy down by 0.99% and Utilities down by 0.98% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 6.15%, Infosys up by 3.73%, Wipro up by 2.01%, Tata Motors up by 1.84% and Coal India up by 1.11%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 3.03%, Tata Steel down by 2.34%, SBI down by 1.95%, Asian Paints down by 1.79% and Reliance Industries down by 1.67% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, domestic credit rating agency, ICRA in its latest report has said that the Ministry of Road Transportation and Highways’ lower target of awarding works for around 20,000 kilometres (km) length of National Highways during 2018-19, would make achievement of the Bharatmala programme’s goals more challenging.

According to the report, in order to achieve the ambitious target for new highway development programme, which is 83,677 km by FY22, the award rate has to be more than double from what it was in FY18. It also pointed out that the target for FY19 has instead been lowered to 20,000 km from 25,000 km last year, which makes the achievement of Bharatmala targets even more challenging.

The rating agency has stated that this lower target is, however, about 17 percent more than the 17,055 km awarded during FY18, which by far has been the best year for the ministry, both in terms of execution and projects awarded. It also said that the government has decided to focus more execution in the current year. It added that given the ambitious target in Bharatmala the award rate should be upwards of 40,000 km for the next two years - FY19 and FY20.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10542.55, down by 22.75 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 10530.25 and 10564.00. There were 13 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were TCS up by 6.14%, Infosys up by 3.69%, HCL Tech. up by 3.33%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.72% and Tata Motors up by 2.08%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 3.19%, Tata Steel down by 2.66%, Bajaj Finance down by 2.65%, GAIL India down by 2.01% and Vedanta down by 1.89% were the top losers.

All Asian Markets were trading in red; Hang Seng decreased 232.99 points or 0.76% to 30,475.45, Taiwan Weighted shed 191.84 points or 1.75% to 10,779.38, Shanghai Composite dipped 47.87 points or 1.54% to 3,069.51, Jakarta Composite was down by 34.15 points or 0.54% to 6,321.75, Nikkei 225 decreased 28.94 points or 0.13% to 22,162.24, KOSPI Index dropped 9.77 points or 0.39% to 2,476.33 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI fell 5.89 points or 0.31% to 1,889.29.