Local equities turn negative again in morning deals

Local equity benchmarks erased all the gains to turn negative again in morning session, both Sensex and Nifty were trading below their crucial 35,900 and 10,800 marks, respectively. Oil & Gas, Metal, Energy and Basic Materials counters witnessed notable losses, while FMCG and Realty sectors edged higher. However, losses on the streets were arrested as traders were getting solace with Finance Ministry’s report that the Indian economy is projected to be the fastest-growing major economy in the current and upcoming fiscal 2019-20, and emphasized that the government has taken several steps to boost investors' confidence. Some support also came with report the direct tax-to-GDP ratio of 5.98 percent achieved during 2017-18 fiscal is the best in the last 10 years. It was 5.57 percent in 2016-17 and 5.47 percent in 2015-16.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, following US stock futures slipped after tech giant Apple Inc. lowered its first-quarter revenue outlook and also warned of weaker sales in China. Back home, Aviation industries stocks were trading mixed, despite a private report stated that India may hold ‘informal talks’ with nine countries, including Saudi Arabia and China, to expand bilateral flying foreign rights during the Global Aviation Summit.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35881.44, down by 10.08 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 35778.40 and 35999.66. There were 15 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.06%, while Small cap index was up by 0.19%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 0.91%, Consumer Durables up by 0.45%, IT up by 0.27%, TECK up by 0.21% and Realty up by 0.13%, while Oil & Gas down by 1.26%, Metal down by 0.97%, PSU down by 0.70%, Energy down by 0.50% and Basic Materials was down by 0.25% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HCL Tech up by 0.98%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.75%, ICICI Bank up by 0.60%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.53% and Bajaj Finance up by 0.53%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.88%, Tata Steel down by 1.61%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.45%, Coal India down by 1.35% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.72% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to enhance liquidity with a view to boosting outbound shipments, The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has decided to provide a 3% interest subsidy to merchant exporters, entailing an expenditure of Rs 600 crore. This will cover hundreds of items produced by labour-intensive sectors like agriculture, textiles and leather that also make up for a sizeable chunk of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The proposal will entail benefits of around Rs 600 crore to exporters on interest equalisation for the remaining period of the scheme.

CCEA further asserted that it is expecting that the inclusion of merchant exporters in the scheme will make exporters more competitive, encourage them to export more products manufactured by MSMEs. Additional exports by them will increase production by MSME giving a fillip to employment generation as MSME are generally in the employment-intensive sectors.

Besides, in April 2015, the government had launched the interest subsidy scheme for five years for all manufacturing exporters. However, merchant exporters were not covered under the scheme.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10776.60, down by 15.90 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 10750.00 and 10814.05. There were 19 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 1.80%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.35%, HCL Tech up by 0.91%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.68% and Bajaj Finance was up by 0.66%. On the flip side, HPCL down by 3.29%, ONGC down by 2.82%, Eicher Motors down by 2.48%, BPCL down by 2.33% and Indian Oil Corporation was down by 1.86% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red, Hang Seng decreased 110.44 points or 0.44% to 25,019.91, Taiwan Weighted dropped 62.58 points or 0.66% to 9,491.56, Straits Times trembled 23.53 points or 0.77% to 3,015.36 and KOSPI was down by 5.88 points or 0.29% to 2,004.12.

On the other side, Shanghai Composite gained 0.07 points or 0% to 2,465.36 and Jakarta Composite was up by 16.47 points or 0.27% to 6,197.65.