Key indices continue to trade lower in afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued their weak trade in afternoon session, on the back of sustained selling activities by market-participants amid weakness across Asian peers. The mood on the street remained cautious with the World Bank’s latest report stating that India lost a staggering $86.1 billion, equivalent to over 4% of its GDP, owing to distortions in the power sector in 2016. It added that although India has achieved 100 per cent village electrification earlier this year, 178 million Indians still remain unconnected to the grid as per figures for 2017. Some anxiety also remained among the local traders with the government think-tank Niti Aayog’s statement that farm loan waiver a move helps only a fraction of farmers and is no solution to mitigate agrarian distress. On the sectoral front, textile sector remained in focus with private report indicating that India’s textile and apparel exports growth moderated to 14 percent in November due to a sharp volatility in the rupee against the dollar.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, after the US Federal Reserve voted to raise borrowing costs for the fourth time this year, signalling a further squeeze on liquidity around the world. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36306.81, down by 177.52 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 36202.90 and 36383.20. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.18%, while Small cap index was up by 0.23%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 0.18%, Realty up by 0.17%, Capital Goods up by 0.15%, Industrials up by 0.12% and Consumer Disc up by 0.06%, while Metal down by 1.30%, Utilities down by 1.02%, Power down by 1.01%, Telecom down by 1.00% and Energy down by 0.72% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Yes Bank up by 3.12%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.36%, Asian Paints up by 1.27%, ONGC up by 0.57% and Sun Pharma up by 0.53%. On the flip side, Vedanta down by 2.22%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.68%, Power Grid down by 1.63%, HDFC down by 1.37% and Reliance Industries down by 1.23% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Giriraj Singh has said that his ministry will establish 20 additional technology centres in different parts of the country to support MSMEs. He noted that these centres will help MSMEs by giving them access to advanced manufacturing technologies, skilling manpower and providing technical and business advisory support. He added that presently, 10 such centres are operational in different states of the country. 

The MSME minister further said that there were some challenges for the sector, but the government was working on all those areas, including providing timely credit. He also said that schemes like Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) and credit guarantee fund trust for micro and small enterprises had helped in creating 19 lakh new entrepreneurs. He said 'I think these entrepreneurs have created jobs for about three crore people.'

MSMEs are contributing around 45 percent in the country's exports, 24.63 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from service activities and 33.4 percent to the manufacturing output.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10913.20, down by 54.10 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 10880.05 and 10935.70. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Yes Bank up by 3.29%, Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 3.18%, Asian Paints up by 1.39%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.14% and Indian Oil Corp. up by 0.79%. On the flip side, Grasim Industries down by 2.54%, Vedanta down by 2.13%, Hindalco down by 2.07%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.86% and Power Grid down by 1.68% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red; Straits Times trembled 12.99 points or 0.42% to 3,045.66, Shanghai Composite declined 14.32 points or 0.56% to 2,535.24, Hang Seng decreased 330.72 points or 1.28% to 25,534.67, KOSPI fell 18.72 points or 0.9% to 2,060.12, Nikkei 225 slipped 595.34 points or 2.84% to 20,392.58, Jakarta Composite dropped 59.21 points or 0.96% to 6,116.88 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 108.69 points or 1.11% to 9,674.52.