Indian bourses continue to trade in positive territory

Adding some gains, Indian equity benchmarks continued their trade in green in afternoon session, on the back of buying by funds and retail investors despite largely weak Asian cues. Sentiments remained positive as the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) tightened disclosure and review norms for credit rating agencies (CRAs). SEBI ordered CRAs to analyse deterioration in the liquidity conditions of an issuer, while monitoring its repayment schedules and taking into account any asset-liability mismatches. These measures will enable investors to understand underlying rating drivers better and make more informed investment decisions. Besides, sharp recovery in the rupee value against dollar along with encouraging earnings by some blue-chip firms too supported the markets. However, gains remained capped as anxiety remained among the local traders with data indicating that Inflation based on wholesale prices rose to over 4-month high of 5.28 percent in October on rising prices of crude, natural gas, fuel and power although food prices have softened.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, as investors fretted about slowing global growth with crude oil prices sinking on worries about weakening world demand and oversupply. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35241.47, up by 96.98 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 35042.31 and 35351.88. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.63%, while Small cap index was up by 0.28%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 2.23%, PSU up by 1.89%, Telecom up by 1.77%, FMCG up by 1.19% and Energy up by 1.13%, while IT down by 2.70%, TECK down by 2.04%, Healthcare down by 1.16%, Capital Goods down by 0.15% and Industrials down by 0.11% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 3.65%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.28%, SBI up by 3.00%, Asian Paints up by 2.63% and Maruti Suzuki up by 2.36%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 4.97%, Infosys down by 2.94%, TCS down by 2.88%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.94% and Wipro down by 0.94% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari will invite prospective investors for the second tranche of highway projects of 586 km under toll-operate-transfer (TOT) basis. The first TOT auction for a bundle of nine projects was a huge success and had fetched NHAI Rs 9,681 crore. TOT is a model for monetising operational National Highways projects. Under TOT, the investor makes a lump sum payment in return for long term toll collection rights backed by a sound tolling system and the concession period is 30 years.

He said upto 49 percent divestment is allowed till two years of the concession period, upto 10 percent change in ownership is allowed after two years. The investor is de-risked from undertaking any construction. If required, NHAI will conduct capacity augmentation at its own cost. The first lot of TOT bundle comprising nine projects, totalling around 681 KM of roads in two states of Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, was awarded in 2018.

The second bundle of over 586 kms is now offered spread over four States - Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal and Bihar. The offer has 12 toll plazas across four highways. These stretches include Chittorgarh-Kota & Chittorgarh Bypass Swaroopganj-Pindwara & Pindwara-Udaipur, Palanpur / Khemana - Abu Road, Jetpur-Somnath, PurneaDalkhola, DalkholaIslampur, Islampur - Sonapur - Ghoshpukur and Salsalabari - West Bengal Assam Border Section.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10615.05, up by 32.55 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 10559.25 and 10651.60. There were 33 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HPCL up by 8.27%, BPCL up by 7.08%, Indian Oil Corp. up by 6.82%, Zee Entertainment up by 3.98% and Hindustan Unilever up by 3.94%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 5.00%, HCL Tech. down by 3.92%, Tech Mahindra down by 3.91%, GAIL India down by 3.30% and Infosys down by 2.94% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 150.94 points or 0.59% to 25,641.93, Straits Times shed 16.37 points or 0.54% to 3,037.23, KOSPI was down by 3.18 points or 0.15% to 2,068.05 and Shanghai Composite dipped 22.19 points or 0.84% to 2,632.69.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted increased 16.04 points or 0.16% to 9,791.88, Nikkei 225 was up by 35.96 points or 0.16% to 21,846.48 and Jakarta Composite added 56.77 points or 0.96% to 5,891.97.