Benchmarks continue to trade in negative territory

Indian benchmarks continued to trade in negative territory in early noon session, with Sensex and Nifty plunging around a percent. Selling in frontline blue chip stocks such Maruti Suzuki, HDFC, Infosys, Asian Paints, ICICI Bank and Wipro too weighed down sentiment, while buying in Tata Motors, Tata Motors - DVR and Tata Steel minimizing losses up to certain level. The rupee weakened marginally against the US dollar, tracking selloff in global equity markets amid rising concerns over global economic growth. Anxiety remained on the street as global capital markets, which have been volatile in the current year, are likely to remain so due to various factors such as US Fed rate hikes, volatile oil prices, intensifying trade conflicts and sanctions. At the same time, the volatility in the Indian equity market which measured 12 percent upto mid-December during the current fiscal, is among the lowest compared to major developed and emerging markets. Sentiments remain dampened with Parliamentary Committee expressing concern over the huge losses suffered by some Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) and the low rate of return on assets and pressed the urgent need for optimum utilisation of their assets to generate better earnings.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, as the threat of a U.S. government shutdown and of further hikes in U.S. borrowing costs inflamed investor unease over the economic outlook. Back home turf, Textile stocks remained in focus with a report that the country's textiles sector, which currently employs over 45 million people, will require 17 million additional workforce by 2022. Towards diversification of textiles exports, 12 markets in Vietnam, Indonesia, South Korea, Australia, Egypt, turkey, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia and Peru have been identified.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36077.60, down by 354.07 points or 0.97% after trading in a range of 36005.08 and 36483.49. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.81%, while Small cap index was down by 0.55%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy down by 1.29%, TECK down by 1.29%, Telecom down by 1.28%, IT down by 1.27%, Realty down by 1.17%, while there were no gainers on sectoral indices.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 1.42%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 1.09%, Tata Steel up by 0.18% and SBI was up by 0.02%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.60%, Infosys down by 1.96%, Asian Paints down by 1.81%, ICICI Bank down by 1.75% and Wipro was down by 1.60% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in consultation with the government, has decided to have a rule-based dynamic limit for outstanding stock of External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) at 6.5% of Gross domestic product (GDP) at current market prices.

The RBI has said that based on the GDP figures at March-end 2018, the soft limit works out to $160 billion for the fiscal year 2018-19. The outstanding stock of ECBs as on September 30, 2018, stood at $126.29 billion.

ECBs refer to commercial loans in the form of bank loans, securitised instruments (floating rate notes and fixed rate bonds, non-convertible, optionally convertible or partially convertible preference shares), buyers’ credit, suppliers’ credit availed of from non-resident lenders with a minimum average maturity of 3 years.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10837.35, down by 114.35 points or 1.04% after trading in a range of 10814.50 and 10963.65. There were 4 stocks advancing against 46 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 1.22%, HPCL up by 0.31%, Tata Steel up by 0.10% and SBI was up by 0.10%. On the flip side, Indian Oil Corporation down by 5.38%, Bharti Infratel down by 3.68%, UPL down by 3.63%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.59% and Infosys was down by 1.95% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red, Jakarta Composite dropped 19.76 points or 0.32% to 6,128.12, Straits Times trembled 6.57 points or 0.22% to 3,044.05, KOSPI fell 3.98 points or 0.19% to 2,056.14, Hang Seng decreased 0.32 points or 0% to 25,623.21, Shanghai Composite declined 29.37 points or 1.16% to 2,506.90 and Nikkei 225 was down by 244.88 points or 1.2% to 20,147.70.

On the other hand, Taiwan Weighted was up by 2.15 points or 0.02% to 9,676.67.