Local bourses hold gains in afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks held their gains in afternoon session, on sustained buying by domestic institutional investors. The indices remained in green with apex exporters’ body, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) stating that the tariff war between the US and China is benefitting India as its exports to the neighbouring country have increased by about 32 per cent during the June-November 2018 period to $8.46 billion. Exports to China had stood at $6.37 billion in June-November 2017. Growth in exports to China is beneficial for India as it has huge trade deficit with the neighbouring country. Strong corporate earnings by some companies alongside a firming trend at other Asian bourses too helped the key indices to trade in the positive zone. However, further gains were restricted as some concerns came with United Nations head Antonio Guterres’ statement that trade tensions impacting the world economy were essentially a ‘political problem’ and warned that a fragmented response to global challenges was a recipe for disaster.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green, as investors look ahead to crucial trade talks between China and the United States at the end of the month. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36358.09, up by 162.99 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 36216.41 and 36474.48. There were 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.30%, while Small cap index was down by 0.10%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.77%, Energy up by 0.77%, Oil & Gas up by 0.70%, Capital Goods up by 0.50% and TECK up by 0.35%, while Realty down by 1.08%, Basic Materials down by 0.83%, Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services down by 0.32%, Utilities down by 0.21% and Metal down by 0.16% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Yes Bank up by 7.08%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.29%, HCL Tech. up by 1.66%, Sun Pharma up by 1.35% and Tata Motors up by 1.31%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.08%, Asian Paints down by 1.58%, ICICI Bank down by 1.45%, Tata Steel down by 0.28% and NTPC down by 0.21% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal will hold a meeting with heads of public sector banks (PSBs) to look into issues in areas such as credit offtake and bad loan position of lenders. Among the key issues, the meeting will take up the matter of credit flow to Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), agriculture and retail sectors.

That apart, the meeting will review bank’s financial performance for the nine months ended December 2018. Also, Non-performing assets (NPAs) would also come up for discussion. Meanwhile, various initiatives taken by the government have yielded results, with the bad loans of public sector banks declining by over Rs 23,000 crore from a peak of Rs 9.62 lakh crore in March 2018.

At the same time, PSBs have also made a record in recovery of Rs 60,726 crore in the first half of 2018-19, which is more than double the amount recovered in the corresponding period last year. According to the latest finance ministry data, non-NPA accounts overdue by 31 to 90 days (Special Mention Accounts 1 & 2) of PSBs have declined by 61 percent over five successive quarters from Rs 2.25 lakh crore as of June 2017 to Rs 0.87 lakh crore in September 2018. 
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10888.55, up by 38.75 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 10858.20 and 10931.70. There were 35 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Yes Bank up by 6.24%, Bharti Infratel up by 5.02%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.11%, UPL up by 1.76% and HCL Tech. up by 1.68%. On the flip side, Ultratech Cement down by 5.22%, Zee Entertainment down by 3.88%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.25%, Asian Paints down by 1.75% and Grasim Industries down by 1.44% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in green; Nikkei 225 surged 198.93 points or 0.97% to 20,773.56, Hang Seng increased 361.73 points or 1.33% to 27,482.71, KOSPI rose 32.70 points or 1.52% to 2,177.73, Jakarta Composite soared 18.60 points or 0.29% to 6,485.26, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 92.49 points or 0.94% to 9,969.61, Shanghai Composite gained 13.75 points or 0.53% to 2,605.44 and Straits Times was up by 16.06 points or 0.5% to 3,206.79.