Indian bourses continue to trade weak in early noon session

Indian bourses continued their weak trade in early noon session on account of selling witnessed in front line blue chip stocks along with weak cues from global markets on renewed concerns over US-China trade tiff. Selling in Tata Motors, Vedanta and ICICI Bank dragged the markets lower, with Sensex and Nifty losing around 0.55% and 0.54% respectively. Sentiments remained downbeat despite the Reserve Bank lowered the policy rate by 25 bps to make the most of the space offered by the softening in prices, and will deliver more on the rate front if its lower inflation estimates are achieved. Besides, broader indices were also trading in red, dragging their larger peers lower during the trade. Market participants paid no attention to report that India has jumped eight places to 36th position on the International Intellectual Property (IP) Index, the highest gain for any country this year. The report also said the improvement reflects important reforms implemented by Indian policy-makers towards building and sustaining an innovation ecosystem for domestic entrepreneurs and foreign investors alike. Traders took note of report that to boost liquidity in the farming sector, particularly among small and marginal farmers, the RBI has been increasing the limit on collateral-free agriculture loans to Rs 1.6 lakh from Rs 1 lakh.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, as investors worried about a broadening global economic slowdown, with sentiment not helped by the absence of any positive signs for a resolution in the US-China trade row. Back on street, in scrip specific developments, Uflex slipped despite reporting a rise of 3.79% in its net profit at Rs 53.98 crore for the quarter under review as compared to Rs 52.01 crore for the same quarter in the previous year. Tata Motors declined after reporting a net loss of Rs 26,992.54 crore for the quarter under review against net profit of Rs 1,198.63 crore for the same quarter in the previous year.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36768.69, down by 202.40 points or 0.55% after trading in a range of 36716.11 and 36885.58. There were 8 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 1.03%, while Small cap index was down by 0.49%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.04%, IT up by 0.33%, TECK up by 0.29% and Telecom was up by 0.20%, while Auto down by 2.86%, Industrials down by 2.04%, Metal down by 1.68%, Basic Materials down by 1.23% and Capital Goods was down by 0.92% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.13%, Infosys up by 0.88%, HCL Technologies up by 0.57%, Indusind Bank up by 0.33% and Hero MotoCorp was up by 0.31%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 17.99%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 14.72%, Vedanta down by 2.97%, ICICI Bank down by 1.95% and Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 1.65% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has said the construction of 65,000 km of national highways will be completed across India at a cost of over Rs 5.35 lakh crore by the year 2022. He noted that the Bharatmala Pariyojana comprises of about 65000 km of Highways / Roads, out of which 24,800 km highways fall along economic corridors, inter corridors, feeder routes and border roads.

The minister has stated that all these highways, along with 10,000 km residual National Highway Development Projects stretches have been envisaged for construction under Phase-I of the Pariyojana over a period of five years from 2017-18 to 2021-22 for which Rs 5,35,000 crore have been earmarked. He also said that the mode of implementation for construction of road stretches under this scheme has been planned in such a manner so as to ensure expeditious implementation.

Gadkari further said that in order to achieve completion within the time-frame, the progress of projects under Bharatmala Pariyojana is monitored regularly to ensure timely completion of Detailed Project Report or feasibility study and civil works for the projects. He also informed that already, 137 road projects having an aggregate length of about 6,530 kms have been awarded and are in various stages of implementation.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11009.15, down by 60.25 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 10988.65 and 11041.20. There were 16 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 3.56%, Cipla up by 1.93%, BPCL up by 1.84%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.10% and Infosys was up by 0.89%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 18.02%, Indiabulls Housing down by 5.00%, Grasim Industries down by 4.24%, Vedanta down by 2.97% and Eicher Motors was down by 2.76% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 411.87 points or 1.98% to 20,339.41, Jakarta Composite dropped 27.26 points or 0.42% to 6,509.20, Hang Seng decreased 60.40 points or 0.22% to 27,929.81, Straits Times trembled 4.66 points or 0.15% to 3,195.98 and KOSPI was down by 24.87 points or 1.13% to 2,178.55.