Sensex, Nifty remain under pressure

Key Indian equity benchmarks remained under pressure in late afternoon session, with the Sensex and the Nifty falling more than 100 and 30 points, respectively, despite firm opening in European markets. Besides, Metal index remained to loser among all the sectoral indices, followed by Bankex and Basic Materials. Major industry losers like Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel and HDFC, were also keeping the indices in red terrain. Traders remained cautious with credit rating agency, Care Ratings’ latest report ‘NPAs of Banks - 20 banks’ stating that overall Non-performing Assets (NPAs) in the banking sector surged by 32.7% to Rs 3.46 lakh crore at the end of March 2018 from Rs 2.61 lakh crore in the year-ago period. Adding some concerns, India Ratings highlighted that investors are cautious in bidding for solar power projects, fearing that depreciation in rupee, if unhedged, may reduce their returns and in turn increase tariffs. However, further down move got restricted with gains in Consumer Durables, Capital Goods and Industrials stocks. Optimism in the broader indices also provided support to cap the losses. Some relief also came with NITI Ayog CEO, Amitabh Kant’s statement that the world of crony capitalism in India has come to an end with the new bankruptcy code, earlier one could borrow money from banks and not repay. Kant said ‘today, if one does not repay, he loses his business empire’.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green, as investors continued to monitor corporate earnings and political risk. Meanwhile, the US and China resumed trade talks on Thursday, as the world’s biggest economies try to find common ground in order to avoid a damaging global tariff war. However, Asian markets were trading in red. Back home, in scrip specific development, Birla Corporation jumped higher on reporting a rise of 29.97% in consolidated net profit at Rs 131.11 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 as compared to Rs 100.88 crore for the corresponding quarter in the FY17.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35270.59, down by 117.29 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 35227.77 and 35510.01. There were 13 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.65%, while Small cap index was up by 0.41%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.34%, Capital Goods up by 0.63%, Industrials up by 0.63%, Telecom up by 0.55% and IT up by 0.38%, while Metal down by 0.74%, Bankex down by 0.46%, Basic Materials down by 0.16%, Energy down by 0.14% and FMCG down by 0.07% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India up by 2.85%, Tata Motors up by 2.59%, Sun Pharma up by 1.98%, Wipro up by 1.70% and Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.63%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.20%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.79%, HDFC down by 1.65%, Axis Bank down by 1.62% and NTPC down by 1.44% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, credit rating agency, Care Ratings in its latest report ‘NPAs of Banks - 20 banks’ has said that overall Non-performing Assets (NPAs) in the banking sector surged by 32.7% to Rs 3.46 lakh crore at the end of March 2018 from Rs 2.61 lakh crore in the year-ago period. The study report based on 20 banks, includes 11 private sector banks and remaining 9 are public sector banks (PSBs).

According to the report, all the banks have witnessed rise in NPA ratio except Yes Bank and Kotak Bank in the private sector and Vijaya Bank and Indian Bank in the PSBs. Besides, it noted that in March 2018, NPAs for the combined set of banks rose to 8.32% from 7.17% reported in March 2017.

The rating agency further said that Axis Bank reported the highest rise in terms of NPA ratio on year-on-year basis among private banks, while UCO Bank, Dena Bank, Union Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Allahabad Bank and Bank of Maharashtra were the PSBs who have showed highest increase in NPA ratio over the year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10709.25, down by 31.85 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 10696.85 and 10777.25. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 3.24%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.63%, Tata Motors up by 2.40%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.11% and Wipro up by 1.84%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 3.17%, Tata Steel down by 2.18%, BPCL down by 1.90%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.90% and NTPC down by 1.85% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 168.05 points or 0.54% to 30,942.15, Taiwan Weighted decreased 63.76 points or 0.59% to 10,833.81, Shanghai Composite decreased 15.28 points or 0.48% to 3,154.28 and KOSPI Index decreased 11.37 points or 0.46% to 2,448.45. On the flip side, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 5.67 points or 0.31% to 1,863.93, Jakarta Composite increased 25.15 points or 0.43% to 5,866.61 and Nikkei 225 increased 121.14 points or 0.53% to 22,838.37.

All European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 3.62 points or 0.05% to 7,737.82, Germany’s DAX increased 5.47 points or 0.04% to 13,001.80 and France’s CAC increased 19.32 points or 0.35% to 5,586.86.