Local equities continue to show sluggish trend

Local equity benchmarks continued to show a sluggish trend in morning session, with losses of around one third of a percent. Power, FMCG and Realty counters witnessed notable losses, while IT, Healthcare and Oil & Gas sectors edged higher. Traders remained cautious with CRISIL’s report that it has cut India’s growth forecast for current fiscal to 7.4% on the back of weakening global GDP and trade growth. India’s growth in the July-September quarter slipped to 7.1% from 8.2% in the April-June quarter. It also projected that India’s export, which saw a revival in early part of 2018, could likely see a slower growth. Traders took note of Finance Ministry’s report that Rs 91,149 crore has been issued so far to exporters as GST refunds, which are 93.77% of total claims with the tax authorities, while Rs 6,053 crore worth GST refund is still pending with the government. However, traders ignored a report that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set the target of breaking into top 50 of the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index by December end, the government is mulling changes in customs duty to help importers and exporters.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in mostly in red, as the previous day's euphoria over the China-US trade ceasefire gave way to questions about whether the two can ultimately resolve their differences. Back home, in scrip specific development, Alembic Pharmaceuticals gained with arm receiving approval from USFDA for Glycopyrrolate tablets. Besides, NCC surged on bagging new orders worth Rs 220.2 crore in November.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36113.10, down by 127.90 points or 0.35% after trading in a range of 36087.07 and 36295.84. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.10%, while Small cap index was up by 0.38%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.41%, TECK up by 1.22%, Healthcare up by 0.85%, Basic Materials up by 0.23% and Oil & Gas was up by 0.16%, while Power down by 0.73%, Utilities down by 0.59%, FMCG down by 0.51%, Realty down by 0.46% and Bankex was down by 0.41% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 1.96%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.42%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.36%, TCS up by 1.30% and Hero MotoCorp was up by 1.01%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 2.09%, NTPC down by 1.65%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.50%, HDFC Bank down by 1.23% and Kotak Mahindra Bank was down by 0.90% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, ICRA in its latest report has said it is expecting that India’s current account deficit (CAD) will rise to 3% of Gross domestic product (GDP) in the July-September quarter of current financial year (Q2FY19), from 2.4% in the preceding quarter, driven mainly by high crude oil prices and gold imports. The rating agency expects the CAD to widen sharply to $19-21 billion in Q2 (July-September) FY19, from the modest $7 billion in Q2 FY18.

It further said that CAD is likely to widen to $68-73 billion in FY 19 from $48.7 billion in FY18, if the price of the Indian basket of crude oil averages at $72/barrel in FY2019. Besides, the CAD, which is the difference between the inflow and outflow of foreign currency, stood at 1.9% of GDP in FY18 and 0.6% of GDP in FY17. However, it noted that the subsequent correction in crude oil prices has eased concerns regarding the size of the current account deficit in October-March period of current fiscal.

Additionally, the report highlighted that India’s net import bill related to petroleum, crude and crude related products increased by a sharp 60% to $23 billion in Q2 FY19, from $14 billion in the same period last fiscal following the year-on-year surge in crude oil prices. Meanwhile, gold imports rose by 61% to $9 billion in Q2FY19, from $6 billion in the year-ago period. These two item groups account for around 80% of the rise in India's merchandise trade deficit in the Q2FY19, relative to the year-ago quarter.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10859.15, down by 24.60 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 10845.75 and 10890.95. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 2.74%, Infosys up by 2.00%, Cipla up by 1.79%, UPL up by 1.60% and HCL Tech was up by 1.40%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 2.47%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.75%, NTPC down by 1.55%, HDFC Bank down by 1.35% and Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.84% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 418.86 points or 1.89% to 22,155.90, Hang Seng decreased 110.87 points or 0.41% to 27,071.17, Taiwan Weighted dropped 48.80 points or 0.48% to 10,089.07, Straits Times trembled 29.16 points or 0.92% to 3,161.46 and KOSPI was down by 20.73 points or 0.98% to 2,111.20.

On the other side, Shanghai Composite gained 1.16 points or 0.04% to 2,655.96 and Jakarta Composite was up by 16.08 points or 0.26% to 6,134.40.