Bourses extend fall to trade near day’s low; Realty top loser

Indian equity benchmarks extended their fall in late afternoon session to trade near their fresh intraday low points, with Sensex and Nifty losing more than 200 and 90 points respectively, amid weak opening in European markets. Following the larger pears, the broader markets too added losses in late noon deals, while Realty remained top loser among all the sectoral indices with the losses of more than 2%. Traders remained cautious with a report that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) investigation wing has detected tax evasion of over Rs 2,000 crore in two months, and data analysis reveals that only 1% of over 1.11 crore registered businesses pay 80% of the taxes. Besides, major industry losers like ICICI Bank, HDFC and SBI, were also dragging the markets down. The street failed to take any sense of relief with the Indian Meteorological Department’s (IMD) latest report that monsoon will cover the entire country in the next 2-3 days. On the sectoral front, ceramics stocks were trading lower, despite a private report stating that the ceramic tiles industry is likely to post volume growth of 8% in FY19E and 13% in FY20E, due to a 1.6x Y-o-Y rise in FY18 projects under execution under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) and 42% Y-o-Y pre-sales growth in FY18 of listed real estate firms.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, as traders remain skeptical about US President Donald Trump's approach to foreign policy and trade. Trade worries continue to linger after top US economic advisor Larry Kudlow said the Trump administration has no intention of backing down from the current China situation. Asian markets were also trading in red. Back home, in scrip specific development, Infibeam Incorporation surged after the company partnered with Network18 Group for launching one of the largest online financial platform moneycontrol.ooo in Hindi.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35003.82, down by 213.29 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 35003.46 and 35282.40. 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 1.45%, while Small cap index was down by 1.47%.

The lone gaining sectoral index on the BSE was Metal up by 0.27%, while Realty down by 2.57%, Oil & Gas down by 1.95%, Consumer Durables down by 1.78%, Energy down by 1.59% and PSU down by 1.53% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 1.72%, Tata Steel up by 1.43%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.28%, Axis Bank up by 0.61% and ONGC up by 0.54%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 2.26%, HDFC down by 2.05%, SBI down by 2.04%, Power Grid Corporation down by 2.02% and Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.92% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, underlining India’s key positive points like low dependence on foreign-currency borrowing and significant build-up of foreign exchange reserves, the global rating agency, Moody’s Investor Service in its latest report has said that India is among the countries least vulnerable to currency pressures as a result of a stronger dollar.

The rating agency further noted that the country is less dependent on foreign-currency borrowing to fund its debt burden and this limits the risk of currency depreciation transmitting into materially weaker debt affordability. As per report, India’s significant build-up of foreign exchange reserves in recent years to all-time highs also helps the country to mitigate external vulnerability risk. It also added that the country is benefitted from its large and relatively stable domestic financing base for government debt, which contributes to the economy's resilience by sheltering it from abrupt changes in external financing conditions.

Further, the report said that the average debt maturity of India is close to 10 years and over 96 percent of it is in local currency, even though the country’s debt affordability is relatively weak. Apart from India, the agency also underlined Brazil, China, Mexico and Russia as the least vulnerable countries to currency pressures.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10572.30, down by 99.10 points or 0.93% after trading in a range of 10567.75 and 10674.20. There were 10 stocks advancing against 39 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Infosys up by 1.49%, Hindalco up by 1.19%, Tata Steel up by 1.18%, Lupin up by 0.44% and ONGC up by 0.42%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 5.77%, HPCL down by 4.54%, BPCL down by 3.49%, Titan Company down by 3.41% and GAIL India down by 3.36% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 declined 1.38 points or 0.01% to 22,270.39, Taiwan Weighted slipped 46.75 points or 0.44% to 10,654.28, KOSPI decreased 27.79 points or 1.20% to 2,314.24, Shanghai Composite slipped 27.20 points or 0.98% to 2,785.98 and Jakarta Composite was down by 111.20 points or 1.96% to 5,676.35. On the flip side, Straits Times added by 10.85 points or 0.33% to 3,265.62 and Hang Seng increased 141.06 points or 0.49% to 28,497.32.

All European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 fell 15.27 points or 0.20% to 7,606.42, France’s CAC decreased 7.49 points or 0.14% to 5,319.71 and Germany’s DAX was down by 55.51 points or 0.45% to 12,293.10.