Lackluster trade continues on Dalal Street

Indian equity benchmarks continued their lackluster trade in afternoon session, tracking weakness in Asian peers and rupee's fresh fall against the US dollar. Investors’ sentiments remain dented with a private report stating that India is the second-most underinsured country in the world with an insurance gap of $27 billion (approximately Rs 1.98 lakh crore). Some anxiety also came with another private report that the crude oil import bill for India is expected to increase by $37 billion to $125 billion during the current financial year (2018-19, or FY19) - a 42% spike over the 2017-18 (FY18) bill of $88 billion. Investors didn’t took any relief from report that the net direct tax collection in the country grew by 15.7% on year-on-year basis to reach Rs 4.89 lakh crore in the current fiscal till third week of October. This marks over 42% of the full-year direct tax collection target of Rs 11.5 lakh crore for the fiscal ending March 31, 2019. On the sectoral front, shipping sector remained in focus with the Union minister Nitin Gadkari asking domestic investors to pump their money into the various programmes undertaken by his ministry and promised them every support to improve waterway connectivity.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, as investors remained cautious amid rising global tensions. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34015.18, down by 119.20 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 33852.70 and 34073.92. There were 11 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.88%, while Small cap index was down by 0.88%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.55%, Telecom up by 0.19%, Metal up by 0.14% and Consumer Durables up by 0.12%, while Oil & Gas down by 1.71%, IT down by 1.61%, TECK down by 1.39%, Consumer Disc down by 1.37% and Healthcare down by 1.23% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC up by 2.51%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.99%, Indusind Bank up by 1.67%, Tata Motors up by 1.52% and Coal India up by 1.41%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 5.82%, Wipro down by 4.26%, Sun Pharma down by 2.58%, ONGC down by 2.50% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.29% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union minister for road transport, highways and shipping Nitin Gadkari has asked domestic investors to pump their money into the various programmes undertaken by his ministry and promised them every support to improve waterway connectivity. He also said that the country's economic viability has improved and this is the right time for investors to enter the structural construction projects.

The minister said ‘we have come up with many innovative models. The Sagarmala project has opened huge investment opportunities to the private sector. We also have plans for RoRo services, hovercraft, catamarans, seaplanes among others where we want domestic companies to come forward and invest.’ Talking about the ambitious Sagarmala project, he said that it has a potential of nearly Rs 16 trillion of which around Rs 4.53 trillion is expected to come into port mechanisation and port modernisation.

Gadkari further said that his ministry is undertaking works worth Rs 2.35 trillion under the Sagarmala project in Maharashtra. He also informed that projects worth over Rs 1.50 trilllion are in various stages of implementation, while the work on remaining Rs 850 billion-worth projects is yet to begin. He said that work on these remaining projects, starting with preparation of detailed project reports, will be initiated soon. He added that government is planning to have water-way connectivity to the airports in the megapolis on the similar lines of the system in Venice in Italy.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10191.35, down by 53.90 points or 0.53% after trading in a range of 10152.25 and 10222.10. There were 14 stocks advancing against 36 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 3.19%, HDFC up by 2.76%, Coal India up by 1.65%, Tata Motors up by 1.38% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.33%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 5.53%, Wipro down by 4.44%, Ultratech Cement down by 3.82%, BPCL down by 2.64% and Sun Pharma down by 2.61% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets were trading in red; KOSPI decreased 55.61 points or 2.64% to 2,106.10, Straits Times shed 43.34 points or 1.43% to 3,034.72, Shanghai Composite fell 63.74 points or 2.46% to 2,591.14, Hang Seng decreased 736.79 points or 2.9% to 25,416.36, Nikkei 225 dropped 604.04 points or 2.74% to 22,010.78, Jakarta Composite was down by 32.33 points or 0.56% to 5,808.11 and Taiwan Weighted dipped 199.08 points or 2.04% to 9,775.20.