Indian bourses continue to trade flat with negative bias

Indian bourses continued to trade flat with negative bias in the afternoon session, as investors restricted their bets ahead of index of industrial production (IIP) data for December and inflation numbers for January to be released later in the day. The sentiment remained dull with the Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority’s (Apeda) data showing that India’s exports of agricultural commodities nosedived by up to a staggering 46 per cent in volume terms due to supply glut in the international market which prompted stockists to defer their purchase plans amid expectations of further price fall. Investors will also be looking for the third quarter earning outcomes to be announced later in the day by companies like Coal India, Hindalco and Sun Pharmaceutical. On the sectoral front, Airline stocks were under pressure after oil prices rose amid OPEC-led supply cuts and US sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, although investors expect surging US production and concerns over economic growth to keep markets in check.

On the global front, Asian market were trading mostly in green, as investors hoped a new round of US-China trade talks would help resolve a dispute that's dented global growth and some corporate earnings. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36343.06, down by 51.97 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 36312.21 and 36465.40. There were 17 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.06%, while Small cap index was up by 0.44%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.95%, Basic Materials up by 1.02%, Power up by 0.55%, PSU up by 0.44% and Energy up by 0.38%, while Telecom down by 1.47%, IT down by 1.21%, TECK down by 1.19%, Realty down by 0.42% and FMCG down by 0.23% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 3.45%, Tata Steel up by 3.16%, Coal India up by 1.58%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.20% and Sun Pharma up by 0.89%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.69%, HCL Tech. down by 1.49%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.28%, TCS down by 1.24% and Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.04% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, defence industries have attracted a paltry sum of $0.21 million foreign direct investment (FDI) during the first half of the financial year 2019 (H1FY19). According to the data provided by Minister of State for Commerce and Industry C R Chaudhary, defence industries received $0.08 million, $0.10 million and $0.01 million foreign inflows in 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2017-18, respectively.

Data further noted that India imports around 70 percent of its defence hardware mainly from various countries. It also showed that overall, FDI in India fell by 11 percent to $22.66 billion during April-September period of 2018-19. In 2017-18 also, the growth rate of foreign direct investment recorded a five-year low of 3 percent at $44.85 billion.

Besides, the minister said that funds provided to Invest India have increased to Rs 33.19 crore in 2018-19 as against Rs 1.18 crore in 2013-14. Invest India, a non-profit company, acts as a national investment promotion and facilitation agency. The current shareholding pattern of Invest India is 51 percent of industry associations (Ficci, CII and Assocham) and the remaining 49 percent of central and state governments.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10880.40, down by 8.40 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 10862.25 and 10910.90. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were JSW Steel up by 4.26%, Vedanta up by 3.65%, Tata Steel up by 3.26%, NTPC up by 2.11% and BPCL up by 2.05%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 3.29%, Infosys down by 1.65%, HCL Tech. down by 1.45%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.42% and GAIL India down by 1.37% were the top losers.

Asian market were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 531.04 points or 2.61% to 20,864.21, Hang Seng increased 26.83 points or 0.1% to 28,170.67, KOSPI rose 9.74 points or 0.45% to 2,190.47, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 93.49 points or 0.93% to 10,097.74 and Shanghai Composite gained 13.39 points or 0.5% to 2,667.29.

On the flip side, Straits Times trembled 1.89 points or 0.06% to 3,204.38 and Jakarta Composite was down by 97.36 points or 1.5% to 6,397.64.