Bloodbath continues on Dalal Street in afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to witness bloodbath in afternoon deals with frontline gauges tumbling below their crucial 35,500 (Sensex) and 10,700 (Nifty) levels. Sentiments remained downbeat with Fitch Ratings revising downwards India’s GDP growth forecast to 7.2 per cent for current fiscal citing higher financing cost and reduced credit availability. In its Global Economic Outlook, Fitch projected that for 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial years, India's GDP growth will be 7 per cent and 7.1 per cent respectively. The rating agency has also forecasted Indian rupee to weaken to 75 to a dollar by end of 2019. Global cues too remained sluggish with all the Asian counters trading in red at this point of time with technology firms in Hong Kong and Shanghai battered after the arrest of a top executive at Chinese telecoms giant Huawei that has also fuelled fears about the recent China-US trade deal. Back home, selling in realty auto and energy counters made the maximum damage. Stocks like Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Kotak Bank and IndusInd bank tumbled over two percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35487.53, down by 396.88 points or 1.11% after trading in a range of 35468.12 and 35707.23. There were 5 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 1.40%, while Small cap index was down by 1.34%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 2.65%, Auto down by 1.79%, Telecom down by 1.77%, Healthcare down by 1.63% and Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services was down by 1.53%, while there were no gainers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 0.39%, Power Grid Corporation up by 0.35%, Sun Pharma up by 0.34%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.15% and Tata Steel up by 0.08%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 4.15%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 2.86%, Tata Motors down by 2.72%, Yes Bank down by 2.65% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.58% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, rating agency ICRA has maintained stable year-end outlook for the port sector, in its year-end assessment, and stated that rebound in coal volumes and steady progress on the Sagarmala project are positive for Indian port sector players in the medium term. The agency is expecting that the prospects for the Indian port sector players in the medium term will be favourable, supported by continuing healthy growth in cargo of major volume drivers - Coal, Crude and Containers.

It highlighted that coal imports, which had become a concern over the last 2 years, have been witnessing a rebound and could continue to with the momentum witnessed in first half of FY 2019, adding that demand revival from the power sector and key consumer industries will be critical for sustained pick-up in coal imports.

Besides, it expects that over the medium to long term, overall cargo growth will gain further traction, driven by domestic requirements of crude oil, for meeting domestic petroleum requirements; and containers, given the cost and logistical advantages associated with containerization. Moreover, it emphasized that the major ports are already being targeted for modernisation and efficiency improvement under the Sagarmala project. Over the last two years, there has been progress on the port capacity enhancement, efficiency improvement and port connectivity.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10653.95, down by 128.95 points or 1.20% after trading in a range of 10641.60 and 10722.65. There were 5 stocks advancing against 45 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 0.77%, UPL up by 0.33%, Power Grid Corporation up by 0.30%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.21% and NTPC up by 0.18%. On the flip side, Indiabulls Housing down by 5.28%, Maruti Suzuki down by 4.09%, Tech Mahindra down by 3.55%, Tata Motors down by 2.78% and HCL Tech down by 2.74% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets are trading in red; Nikkei 225 declined 417.71 points or 1.94% to 21,501.62, Taiwan Weighted tumbled 232.02 points or 2.4% to 9,684.72, Straits Times dropped 45.43 points or 1.46% to 3,110.49, Jakarta Composite decreased 31.88 points or 0.52% to 6,101.24, Hang Seng crumbled 757.11 points or 2.9% to 26,062.57, KOSPI shed 32.62 points or 1.58% to 2,068.69 and Shanghai Composite was down by 39.44 points or 1.51% to 2,610.37.