Indian bourses trade in tight range in early noon session

Indian equity bourses were trading in a tight range in early noon session with Nifty and Sensex hovering just above the neutral line. Buying activity in Healthcare, Energy, Auto, Consumer Durables and Capital Goods stocks was helping the markets to stay above the neutral line. However, selling in IT, TECK, PSU, Oil & Gas and Metal stocks kept a lid on the gains. Moreover, losses in BPCL, HPCL, ONGC and Indian Oil Corporation were keeping the oil & gas index under pressure during Wednesday’s trade. Besides, PSU Bank sector was in focus with a report stating that India’s public-sector financial institutions control about 70 percent of all banking assets in the country, but they have the highest exposure to soured loans amounting to as much as $150 billion. In fact, the 21 state-owned banks had stressed loans of about 8.26 trillion rupees ($120 billion) as of December 31.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly lower on heightened anxieties about Sino-U.S. trade tensions ahead Washington's end-of-week deadline to impose tariffs on Chinese imports while the yuan rebounded after China's central bank moved to calm nervous investors. Back home, BSE Mid cap index was dragged down by heavy selling in Shriram Transport Finance, Shriram City Union Finance and Piramal Enterprises, while BSE Small cap index was trading slightly lower due to selling activity in Rain Industries, Indiabulls Ventures and Apollo Tyres.  In scrip specific development, Prakash Industries rose on achieving highest ever quarterly sales volume of around 2.40 lakh tonne in Q1 FY2019 and Suven Life Sciences advanced on securing product patents in various countries.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35395.37, up by 16.77 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 35309.67 and 35437.93. There were 12 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell by 0.84%, while Small cap index down by 0.06%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 0.58%, Energy up by 0.20%, Auto up by 0.11%, Consumer Durables up by 0.09%, Capital Goods up by 0.04%, while IT down by 0.77%, TECK down by 0.73%, PSU down by 0.61%, Oil & Gas down by 0.50%, Metal down by 0.49% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 1.81%, HDFC up by 1.30%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.01%, Reliance Industries up by 0.83% and Maruti Suzuki up by 0.67%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 1.58%, ONGC down by 1.52%, Yes Bank down by 0.98%, Adani Ports down by 0.98% and Infosys down by 0.98% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of Statistics and Programme Implementation Sadananda Gowda has said that the government will change the base year for calculation of Gross domestic product (GDP) to 2017-18, while for Consumer Price Index (CPI) the year will be revised to 2018, which is likely to come into effect by 2019-20. He also indicated that the previous base year for GDP was revised to 2011-12, while for IIP and the CPI, or retail inflation it was revised to 2012.

Gowda has stated that the revisions facilitated more accurate assessment of the progress of the economy and the society. He also pointed out that steps are being initiated for the next round of revision also. Enlisting the government’s achievements in the last 4 years, he said that fundamental principles of the United Nations were adopted in 2016 to calculate official statistics. 

The minister sought to discredit the debate that the government has changed the GDP and CPI calculation methodologies among others to suit its needs. He further said that these principles are aimed at promoting good practices and professional ethics in production and dissemination of official statistics. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10702.20, up by 2.30 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 10677.75 and 10717.30. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Lupin up by 2.48%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.99%, Bharti Infratel up by 1.77%, Sun Pharma up by 1.75% and Bajaj Finserv up by 1.70%. On the flip side, Grasim Industries down by 2.22%, Cipla down by 1.79%, Vedanta down by 1.71%, HPCL down by 1.64% and BPCL down by 1.63% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly lower; Nikkei 225 decreased 68.50 points or 0.32% to 21,717.04, Hang Seng declined 335.66 points or 1.19% to 28,209.91, KOSPI slipped 3.62 points or 0.16% to 2,269.14 and Shanghai Composite was down 24.78 points or 0.9% to 2,762.11.

On the other hand, Taiwan Weighted increased 6.15 points or 0.06% to 10,721.87, Straits Times surged 4.26 points or 0.13% to 3,240.16 and Jakarta Composite was up 10.00 points or 0.18% to 5,643.94.