Weak trade continues on Dalal Street

Tracking losses in global equities, Indian equity benchmarks continued their weak trade in early afternoon deals, on the back of sustained selling activities by market-participants. Sentiments remained downbeat with report that India has slipped by three spots to eleventh position in the FDI Confidence Index 2018 released by American global management consulting firm AT Kearney. India falls by three spots, reversing its two-year streak of rising in the rankings. Some cautions also prevailed in the markets as hopes waned for real progress in Sino-US trade talks due later in the day. The market participants didn’t took note of report that Economic growth in India is expected to strengthen to 7.3 percent in financial year 2018-19 on the back of robust activity from construction, manufacturing, and services sectors. All the sectoral indices edged down on the bourses with Realty, Capital Goods, and Industrials stocks falling the most. Broader indices too were reeling under pressure. In scrip specific development, White Organic Agro was up by around one and half percent on signing Lease Farming pacts for 160 acres of land in addition to the existing capacity.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, following the decline in the US after the Federal Reserve reiterated plans to continue raising rates gradually amid firming inflation. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35045.58, down by 130.84 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 35020.08 and 35257.31. There were 14 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.32%, while Small cap index was down by 1.15%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 1.96%, Capital Goods down by 1.86%, Industrials down by 1.53%, Healthcare down by 1.15% and FMCG down by 1.06%, while there were no gainers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 1.71%, ICICI Bank up by 1.48%, NTPC up by 0.85%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 0.78% and Sun Pharma up by 0.58%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.18%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.76%, Yes Bank down by 1.48%, Wipro down by 1.45% and Tata Motors down by 1.44% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has come out with a draft new telecom policy which aims to rationalise levies, including spectrum charges to rejuvenate the debt-ridden telecom sector. Apart from this, it also proposes to give broadband access to all with 50 mbps speed, 5G services and create 40 lakh new jobs in the sector by 2022. The draft policy branded as 'National Digital Communications Policy 2018' also aims to attract $100 billion in the digital communications sector by 2022 with help of regulatory reforms and enhance the contribution of digital communications to 8% of India’s GDP from about 6% in 2017.

Under the new policy, the government aims to enable fixed line broadband access to 50 percent of households and start landline portability services. It also proposes to adopt ‘Optimal Pricing of Spectrum’ to ensure sustainable and affordable access to digital communications. High spectrum price and related charges have been main concern of telecom services segment which is reeling under a debt of around Rs 7.8 lakh crore.

Additionally, the draft policy proposes recognising of mid-band spectrum, particularly the 3 GHz to 24 GHz range, for next-generation networks. It also promises to remove regulatory barriers and reduce the regulatory burden that hampers investments, innovation and consumer interest. Besides, it proposed to rationalise taxes and levies on digital communications equipment, infrastructure and services.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10661.05, down by 57.00 points or 0.53% after trading in a range of 10647.45 and 10720.60. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 3.09%, ICICI Bank up by 1.81%, Axis Bank up by 1.61%, Hindalco up by 1.16% and NTPC up by 0.97%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 6.55%, UPL down by 3.19%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.32%, Eicher Motors down by 2.31% and Cipla down by 2.17% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red, Hang Seng decreased 422.74 points or 1.38% to 30,301.14, Jakarta Composite was down by 138.82 points or 2.31% to 5,873.42, Taiwan Weighted shed 104.63 points or 0.99% to 10,514.18 and KOSPI Index dipped 18.36 points or 0.73% to 2,487.25.

On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 1.01 points or 0.05% to 1,853.04 and Shanghai Composite was up by 14.92 points or 0.48% to 3,096.10.