Bourses trade slightly lower in early noon session

Key Indian benchmarks were trading slightly lower in early noon session, tracking weak cues from other Asian markets. Sentiment remained weak with Moody’s statement that the fresh round recapitalisation of 12 state-run banks is positive as it will help them improve their core capital but a complete turnaround is still away due to the large quantum of legacy bad loans. It said these banks are far from a complete turnaround as large volumes of problem-loans will still continue to cap improvements in profitability and capitalisation, constraining their credit profiles. However, losses remained limited as India upon all the members of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a proposed mega trade deal, to work towards early conclusion of the agreement to boost economic ties. The agreement aims to cover goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights. Meanwhile, India and Russia are working to address and resolve trade and investment issues to facilitate and increase private sector cooperation between the countries. This mechanism would be in addition to the Russia Desk that had been set up to promote Russian investment in India.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red after a slide on Wall Street as investors nervously watched the U.S.-China trade talks in Washington. Back home, the tourism sector alone created around 14 million jobs during the past four years. The country has climbed from seventh slot in 2017 to the third rank in 2018 in the world travel & tourism council's power and performance index. Besides, Orient Bell traded jubilantly on the bourses as the company has launched a bold new marketing campaign 'Chote bathrooms ke bade solutions', that breaks industry norms by addressing consumer needs.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 35858.92, down by 39.43 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 35795.79 and 35938.52. There were 22 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.32%, while Small cap index was up by 0.71%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.31%, Auto up by 1.10%, Oil & Gas up by 1.01%, Telecom up by 0.93%, PSU up by 0.86%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.54%, Bankex down by 0.47% and Energy was down by 0.25% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Vedanta up by 2.07%, Yes Bank up by 1.79%, ONGC up by 1.63%, HCL Technologies up by 1.46% and Hero MotoCorp was up by 1.35%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 3.62%, Reliance Industries down by 1.16%, HDFC Bank down by 0.58%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.49% and HDFC was down by 0.38% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has re-promulgated an ordinance to amend the companies law that seeks to plug critical gaps in corporate governance, ensure better compliance levels as well as further improve the ease of doing business. Recently, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the Promulgation of the Companies (Second Amendment) Ordinance 2019.

A bill to replace the Companies (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018, that was promulgated in November could not be passed during the last session of the current Parliament. The amendments have been brought in to address the need to impose civil liability for technical & procedural defaults of a minor nature & to plug gaps in the corporate governance & enforcement framework covering a wide range of issues.

As many as 16 minor offences have been re-categorised as ‘purely civil defaults’ which would help de-clog special courts. Besides, certain routine functions from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) would be transferred to the central government. These include dealing with applications for change of financial year and conversion from public to private companies.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10781.95, down by 7.90 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 10758.40 and 10798.95. There were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indian Oil Corporation up by 3.81%, HPCL up by 2.80%, Indiabulls Housing up by 2.76%, BPCL up by 2.30% and Vedanta was up by 2.16%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 3.90%, Reliance Industries down by 1.23%, Titan down by 0.97%, Cipla down by 0.80% and HDFC Bank was down by 0.55% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 36.19 points or 0.13% to 28,593.73, Nikkei 225 slipped 21.83 points or 0.1% to 21,442.40, Straits Times trembled 11.90 points or 0.36% to 3,266.01, Jakarta Composite dropped 52.69 points or 0.81% to 6,485.08 and KOSPI was down by 4.08 points or 0.18% to 2,224.58.

On the flip side; Taiwan Weighted strengthened 3.39 points or 0.03% to 10,322.92 and Shanghai Composite was up by 17.55 points or 0.64% to 2,769.35.