Local bourses enter into red territory in afternoon deals

The local barometer gauges erased all of their initial gains and entered into red territory in afternoon session, on the back of selling appeared in Healthcare, Energy and Capital Goods stocks. Investors turned wary ahead of Reserve Bank of India’s fifth bimonthly monetary policy meeting for 2018-19 which is scheduled to begin later in the day. Sentiments were also down with report that the Central Statistics Office’s (CSO) latest report showing that India’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 7.1% in July-September, down from 8.2% in the previous quarter, as consumption demand moderated and farm sector displayed signs of weakness. However, losses were limited with survey indicating that India’s manufacturing sector activity improved in November and touched an 11-month high as new order flows encouraged companies to lift production amid strong demand conditions. The Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index strengthened from 53.1 in October to 54.0 in November, signalling the strongest improvement in the health of the sector in almost one year.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, after U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a 90-day truce on their escalating trade war by halting additional tariffs as the two countries continue negotiations. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36128.63, down by 65.67 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 36111.27 and 36446.16. There were 19 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.44%, while Small cap index was up by 0.24%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.16%, Realty up by 2.01%, Power up by 1.78%, Utilities up by 1.73% and Basic Materials up by 1.01%, while Healthcare down by 1.13%, Energy down by 0.77%, Capital Goods down by 0.50%, Auto down by 0.50% and Industrials down by 0.27% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 3.58%, Power Grid up by 2.72%, Coal India up by 1.82%, Tata Steel up by 1.74% and NTPC up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 8.41%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 3.32%, Reliance Industries down by 1.26%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.11% and Larsen & Toubro down by 1.09% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) in its latest data has showed that India’s fiscal deficit, the gap between expenditure and revenue, in the first seven months of current financial year (FY19) came in at Rs 6.24 lakh crore or 103.9% of the FY19 Budget target, on the back of lower revenue collections. It noted that the fiscal deficit was 96.1 percent of the Budget Estimate (BE), at end of October 2017-18. The country’s fiscal deficit for FY19 is budgeted at 3.3% of the GDP against the actual of 3.5% in FY18.

According to the data, the revenue receipts of the government totalled Rs 7.88 lakh crore or 45.7% of the BE for 2018-19 as compared to 48.1% of BE last year. It stated that the government has budgeted to mop up Rs 17.25 lakh crore revenue during the current fiscal. It also indicated that tax revenue was 44.7% of target as compared to 51.6% achieved in the comparable period of the last year. Data further highlighted that the Centre’s total expenditure at October-end was Rs 14.56 lakh crore or 59.6% of the BE. It added that the expenditure in terms of percentage of the BE was marginally higher in the year-ago period.

The CGA has said that fiscal deficit figure shown in monthly accounts during a financial year is not necessarily an indicator of fiscal deficit for the year as it gets impacted by temporal mismatch between flow of not-debt receipts and expenditure up to that month on account of various transitional factors both on receipt and expenditure side, which may get substantially offset by the end of the financial year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10855.50, down by 21.25 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 10845.35 and 10941.20. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 5.32%, Vedanta up by 3.55%, Hindalco up by 3.25%, Power Grid up by 2.75% and Tata Steel up by 2.02%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 8.43%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 3.45%, UPL down by 2.81%, HPCL down by 2.65% and Zee Entertainment down by 1.70% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in green; Nikkei 225 increased 223.70 points or 0.99% to 22,574.76, Straits Times surged 68.91 points or 2.16% to 3,186.52, Taiwan Weighted rose 249.84 points or 2.46% to 10,137.87, Hang Seng added 637.79 points or 2.35% to 27,144.54, Shanghai Composite gained 61.28 points or 2.31% to 2,649.47, Jakarta Composite jumped 88.50 points or 1.44% to 6,144.62 and KOSPI increased 35.07 points or 1.64% to 2,131.93.