Markets trade lackluster in early noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lackluster in early noon deals with frontline gauges trading marginally lower as traders remained anxious after Fitch Ratings in its latest report cut India’s economic growth forecast for the next financial year starting April 1, to 6.8% from its previous estimate of 7%, on weaker than expected momentum in the economy. Some concern also came with a private report that the liquidity crisis in the non-banking finance companies (NBFC) space triggered by the default of infrastructure ending major IL&FS last September is continuing to have an impact on mutual fund (MF) deployments in the sector. The overall exposure of debt MFs to NBFCs stood at Rs 2.2 lakh crore in February, a drop of Rs 45,386 crore since July 2018 when the liquidity stress first emerged. Weakness in Asian counters too dampened sentiments with most of the Asian markets are trading mostly in red, as investors pondered the effects of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s more dovish stance. Back home, shares of InterGlobe Aviation, parent of IndiGo, and SpiceJet rallied on market share gain in the month of February.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38341.94, down by 44.81 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 38259.92 and 38564.71. There were 14 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was slipped 0.02%, while Small cap index was down by 0.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.26%, Power up by 1.19%, Utilities up by 0.97%, Realty up by 0.85% and Industrials was up by 0.64%, while Energy down by 0.88%, Telecom down by 0.52%, Oil & Gas down by 0.46%, TECK down by 0.35% and Healthcare was down by 0.31% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 3.40%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.22%, Yes Bank up by 1.53%, Tata Steel up by 1.24% and Vedanta up by 1.00%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 2.32%, Reliance Industries down by 0.97%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.97%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.88% and TCS down by 0.77% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has made a case for setting up GST Council-like federal institutions to promote healthcare, rural development and agriculture sectors by optimally utilising resources of the centre and states. He also said that the successful experiment of GST Council, which is a constitutional body for making recommendations to the Union and State Governments on various issues related to the GST, needs to be replicated in other areas.

He stated that agriculture, rural development and healthcare is one area where the central government spends a lot of money on supporting farmers, creating infrastructure and building health centres for poor population. He said the state governments too spending money on these sectors. He pointed out that there is a need for utilising the resources in an optimal manner by enhancing coordination between the centre and state governments for essential developmental activities.

The minister further said “I strongly believe federal institutions after the successful implementation of the GST Council must be experimented in the areas of rural development, agriculture and healthcare. This will help the poorest section of population. We stand as a political party also committed to enforce this.” He said the GST Council is an excellent federal institution, which in its 34 meetings has decided thousands of issues with consensus leading to benefits to traders and people and developing 'New India'.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11509.45, down by 11.60 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 11481.90 and 11572.80. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 3.68%, Larsen & Toubro up by 2.35%, JSW Steel up by 1.84%, Yes Bank up by 1.57% and Titan Company up by 1.51%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 2.68%, Bharti Infratel down by 2.29%, BPCL down by 1.84%, HPCL down by 1.69% and Zee Entertainment down by 1.66% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Straits Times slipped 0.38 points or 0.01% to 3,213.27, Hang Seng dropped 106.62 points or 0.37% to 28,964.94, KOSPI dipped 0.31 points or 0.01% to 2,184.57, Jakarta Composite shed 3.91 points or 0.06% to 6,497.87 and Shanghai Composite was down by 6.97 points or 0.22% to 3,094.49.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 gained 18.42 points or 0.09% to 21,627.34 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 29.52 points or 0.28% to 10,639.07.