Indian bourses continue to languish in afternoon deals

Indian bourses continued to languish in negative territory in afternoon session, on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters. Investors maintained cautious approach ahead of Futures and Options (F&O) derivative expiry for September series due today. The sentiments remained pessimistic with a United Nations trade report stating that the world economy remains on a shaky ground a decade after the 2008 financial crisis as the global economic growth is spasmodic and many economies are operating below potential. Some concern also came with private report stating that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to raise interest rates in early October, despite relatively tame inflation, to prop up a retreating rupee. On the sectoral front, shares of tyre makers jumped as government raised the import tariffs on 19 non-essential items, including radial car tyres, to reduce the country's widening current account deficit and tackle the rupee slide.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, after the U.S. Federal Reserve lifted its key interest rate as expected for the third time this year. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36471.83, down by 70.44 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 36412.16 and 36711.62. There were 14 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 1.10%, while Small cap index down was by 0.92%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.87%, TECK up by 0.80%, Metal up by 0.60%, Utilities up by 0.18% and Consumer Durables was up by 0.17%, while Realty down by 2.73%, Capital Goods down by 1.12%, Healthcare down by 1.11%, Industrials down by 0.82% and Bankex was down by 0.77% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 1.82%, Tata Steel up by 1.60%, Infosys up by 1.35%, NTPC up by 1.22% and SBI up by 1.06%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 5.72%, Sun Pharma down by 1.66%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.54%, HDFC down by 1.53% and ICICI Bank down by 1.44% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet has approved a new telecom policy -- the National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP) 2018, which aims to attract $100 billion in investments and create four million jobs in the telecom sector by 2022. That apart, the policy also envisages 50 Mbps of broadband connectivity to every citizen in five years. Telecom minister Manoj Sinha has said that things have very rapidly evolved in the sector and hence new policy has been made to address emerging technology areas like 5G, Internet of Things and machine to machine communication.

The minister has said that the government wants to focus on socio-economic growth of the country with the help of the telecom sector instead of seeing it as source of revenue generation. He noted that the NDCP proposes to adopt Optimal Pricing of Spectrum to ensure sustainable and affordable access to digital communications. He pointed out that high spectrum price and related charges have been the main concern of the telecom services segment, which is reeling under a debt of Rs 7.8 lakh crore.

Sinha further said that some of the objectives of the NDCP 2018 include providing broadband access to all, creating 40 lakh new jobs, and increasing India’s ranking in the global ICT Index to 50th spot. He also expressed hopes that the policy will boost the sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 8 percent from 6 percent in 2017. He added that the global average of telecom sector contribution to GDP is 4.5 percent and sector at present contributes around 6.5 percent to India’s GDP.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11025.85, down by 27.95 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 11003.40 and 11089.45. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Titan Company up by 2.21%, Asian Paints up by 1.87%, Tata Steel up by 1.72%, Infosys up by 1.39% and NTPC up by 1.28%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 5.77%, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 4.79%, Bajaj Finance down by 2.38%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.20% and HDFC down by 1.74% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Straits Times increased 15.73 points or 0.48% to 3,254.83, KOSPI rose 16.26 points or 0.69% to 2,355.43, Jakarta Composite surged 48.13 points or 0.81% to 5,921.40 and Taiwan Weighted added 60.00 points or 0.54% to 11,034.19.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 decreased 237.05 points or 1% to 23,796.74, Shanghai Composite was down by 12.02 points or 0.43% to 2,794.79 and Hang Seng fell 110.16 points or 0.4% to 27,706.71.