Weak trade continues; Sensex falls over 150 points

Weak trade continued on Dalal Street in late afternoon session, following negative European markets. Trading sentiments remained lackluster, amid a private report stating that chief executive officers (CEOs) across the globe harbour a grim outlook towards 2019 and the economy with nearly 30 percent of them projecting a decline in global economic growth. This is surprising when seen against the record jump in optimism projected by CEOs just last year. Investors took note of a report that India has moved up one position to rank 80th on the global talent competitive index, but remains a laggard among the BRICS nations. The street remained pessimistic even though the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) proposed to relax norms for entry of new players in the retail payment systems with a view to give a boost to innovation and competition. The RBI has been issuing guidelines for various payment systems and grants authorisation to non-banks for setting up and operating payment systems.

On the sectoral front, airlines stocks were trading mostly higher, after the domestic air passenger count has gone up by 12.91% in the month of December 2018. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data, domestic airlines flew 126.93 lakh passengers in December 2018, as against 112.42 lakh passengers carried in the same month of last year. However, stocks related to metal industry fell, despite reports that India has surged past Japan to become the second largest steel producer in the world with expansion in output backed by a sound growth in demand. According to World Steel Association, India produced 96.92 million tonnes of crude steel during the first eleven months of 2018 compared to 92. 39 million tonnes during the same period of 2017, representing a growth of 4.9 per cent.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, as Dutch consumer confidence eased for a sixth month running in January to its lowest level in over four years and the fall was the worst in more than seven years. The preliminary data from the Central Bureau of Statistics showed that the consumer confidence index dropped to 1 from 9 in December. The latest reading was the lowest since February 2015, when it was at minus 1. Asian markets were also trading in red, as the IMF cut its estimate for global growth, citing a range of triggers beyond escalating trade tensions. IMF put global growth estimate at 3.5 percent in 2019 and 3.6 percent in 2020, down 0.2 and 0.1 percentage point, respectively, from last October's forecasts.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36415.15, down by 163.81 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 36282.93 and 36650.47. There were 6 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.15%, while Small cap index was down by 0.55%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.22%, Consumer Durables up by 0.88%, Realty up by 0.85%, Oil & Gas up by 0.58% and Energy up by 0.06%, while Metal down by 2.21%, Basic Materials down by 1.21%, Auto down by 0.95%, Telecom down by 0.65% and Industrials down by 0.58% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 5.61%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.17%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.66%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.45% and ONGC up by 0.10%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 3.13%, Vedanta down by 3.07%, Tata Steel down by 2.98%, HCL Tech. down by 2.09% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.82% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the domestic air passenger count has gone up by 12.91% in the month of December 2018. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data, domestic airlines flew 126.93 lakh passengers in December 2018, as against 112.42 lakh passengers carried in the same month of last year.

As per the report, the domestic air passenger count increased 18.60% during the period of January- December 2018. Indian carriers carried 1389.76 lakh passengers during January- December 2018 as against 1171.76 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year. Further, in terms of passenger load factor (PLF), SpiceJet was leading among all with 92.7% PLF during the month of December 2018, followed by IndiGo (88.9%), Air Asia (88.8%), Go Air (88.5%) and Jet Airways (87.0%).

In terms of on time performance (OTP), Go Air has taken lead from the rest with 83% of its flights arriving and departing as per schedule from four metro airports, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, followed by SpiceJet (77.9%) and Vistara (77.7%). During December 2018, a total of 803 passenger related complaints had been received by the scheduled domestic airlines. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of December 2018 has been around 0.63.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10911.20, down by 50.65 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 10864.15 and 10949.80. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 5.65%, GAIL India up by 2.14%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.12%, Titan up by 2.06% and Bajaj Finance up by 1.46%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 3.40%, Vedanta down by 3.05%, Tata Steel down by 3.02%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.98% and HCL Tech. down by 2.63% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 96.42 points or 0.47% to 20,622.91, Hang Seng decreased 191.09 points or 0.70% to 27,005.45, KOSPI fell 6.84 points or 0.32% to 2,117.77, Shanghai Composite declined 34.29 points or 1.31% to 2,576.22 and Straits Times trembled 19.36 points or 0.60% to 3,201.20. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted rose 5.26 points or 0.05% to 9,894.66 and Jakarta Composite was up by 17.73 points or 0.27% to 6,468.56.

All European markets were trading in red; France’s CAC fell 12.69 points or 0.26% to 4,855.09, Germany’s DAX lost 19.41 points or 0.17% to 11,116.79 and UK’s FTSE 100 was down by 24.27 points or 0.35% to 6,946.32.