Sensex, Nifty pare some losses

Indian equity benchmarks pared some losses in late afternoon session, tracking firm opening of European markets. Trading sentiments got some relief with a survey of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) stating that higher production and a better growth outlook have instilled confidence in manufacturers in the October-December quarter of 2018-19 for ramping up hiring. Adding support, Prime Minister Narendra Modi exuded confidence that India would continue to be the fastest-growing large economy, and could be the second-largest economy in the world by 2030. Some comfort also came after the commerce ministry stated that India's exports to China has reached $12.7 billion during April-December 2018 on account of growth in shipments of marine products, chemicals, plastics, petroleum products, grapes and rice. However, the markets remained in red terrain, on account of heavy selling in Healthcare, Capital Goods and Energy stocks.

On the sectoral front, stocks of electronic industry were in limelight, aided by Electronics and IT Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney’s statement that new schemes introduced by the government will focus not only on manufacturing of electronics in India, but also positioning the country as an export hub. Auto stocks were trading mixed, after the latest data from auto industry body, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed that at a time when two-wheeler manufacturers are finding sales moving at a slow pace in the domestic market, their exports have risen by 19.49 per cent in the April-January period this fiscal. Further, oil & gas industry stocks remained in focused, as a new study by think-tank, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) found that Indian government subsidies for fossil fuels, including oil and gas, have decreased by 76% over the three years to 2017, but subsidies for the coal industry have remained stable over the same period.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green, after France's manufacturing output rebounded in December, rising 1.1%, after falling by a revised 1.5% in the preceding month. According to preliminary data from the statistical office INSEE, growth was driven by a 5.7% rise in the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products, followed by a 2.6% climb in the production of transport equipment. Other manufacturing registered a 1.3% increase and the manufacture of food products and beverages grew 0.9%. Asian markets were also trading in green.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36478.36, down by 68.12 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 36300.48 and 36588.41. There were 16 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 1.24%, while Small cap index was down by 1.25%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.63%, TECK up by 0.61% and Metal up by 0.39%, while Healthcare down by 1.71%, Capital Goods down by 1.24%, Energy down by 1.07%, Industrials down by 1.02% and Oil & Gas down by 0.98% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.25%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.02%, Power Grid up by 1.00%, HCL Tech up by 0.99% and TCS up by 0.90%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 4.18%, ONGC down by 2.58%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.38%, Reliance Industries down by 1.36% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.35% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a positive surprise, bad loans of public sector banks (PSBs) fell by Rs 31,168 crore to Rs 8,64,433 crore in the first nine months of the current fiscal as against Rs 8,95,601 crore  to end of March 2018. The Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla has noted that bad loans fell to Rs 8,75,619 crore as on June 2018 and further to Rs 8,64,433 crore in December 2018 (as per provisional data), further underlying  that presently the government is not considering any proposal for privatisation of PSBs.

Shukla also said that fall in Non Performing Assets (NPAs), on the back of the government's 4Rs strategy of recognition, resolution, recapitalisation and reforms. Besides, he said that Asset Quality Review (AQR) initiated in 2015 for clean and fully provisioned bank balance-sheets revealed high incidence of NPAs.

The Minister of State for Finance said that primarily as a result of transparent recognition of stressed assets as NPAs, gross NPAs of PSBs as per RBI data on global operations, increased from Rs 2,27,264 crore as on March 31, 2014, to Rs 2,79,016 crore on March 31, 2015, Rs 5,39,968 crore on March 31, 2016 and Rs 6,84,732 crore as on March 31, 2017. However, with various steps taken by the government including the initiation of transparent recognition in 2015-16 till December 2018, PSBs have successfully recovered an amount of Rs 3,33,491 crore.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10912.20, down by 31.40 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 10857.10 and 10930.90. There were 24 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining, while 1 remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 3.53%, Cipla up by 1.73%, Indian Oil Corporation up by 1.61%, HPCL up by 1.09% and HCL Tech. up by 1.03%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy’s Lab down by 5.29%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 4.00%, ONGC down by 3.19%, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 3.15% and GAIL India down by 2.11% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 197.52 points or 0.71% to 28,143.84, KOSPI rose 3.68 points or 0.17% to 2,180.73, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 71.99 points or 0.72% to 10,004.25, Shanghai Composite gained 34.95 points or 1.33% to 2,653.18 and Straits Times rose 0.68 points or 0.02% to 3,202.72. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 3.26 points or 0.05% to 6,518.40.

All European markets were trading in green; FTSE rose 61.94 points or 0.88% to 7,133.12, CAC jumped 53.64 points or 1.08% to 5,015.28 and DAX was up by 100.60 points or 0.92% to 11,007.38.