Indian bourses trade flat in afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks trading flat in afternoon session, as key corporate results remained in focus. Investors turned wary with a monthly survey showing that India's manufacturing sector performance eased to an eight-month low in April as new business growth moderated, curbed by the elections and a challenging economic environment. The Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index declined from 52.6 in March to 51.8 in April, reflecting weakest improvement in business conditions since August 2018. Some anxiety also came in with India Ratings and Research marginally lowered country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projection for 2019-20 fiscal to 7.3% mainly due to below normal monsoon prediction and loss of momentum in industrial output. It had earlier projected India's GDP growth at 7.5%. However, the markets were taking some support with the finance ministry’s statement that Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection scaled all-time high of over Rs 1.13 lakh crore in April, up from Rs 1.06 lakh crore in the previous month.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, despite the U.S. Federal Reserve decided to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged amid mixed signals about the direction of the US economy. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 39076.94, up by 45.39 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 38882.99 and 39189.95. There were 15 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.21%, while Small cap index was up by 0.09%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.30%, Capital Goods up by 0.87%, Realty up by 0.52%, Industrials up by 0.43% and Energy was up by 0.29%, while IT down by 1.25%, TECK down by 0.88%, Consumer Durables down by 0.63%, Oil & Gas down by 0.46% and Healthcare was down by 0.36% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Yes Bank up by 4.37%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.97%, Power Grid up by 1.72%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.62% and HDFC Bank was up by 1.46%. On the flip side, Tata Motors - DVR down by 2.15%, Tata Motors down by 1.82%, ICICI Bank down by 1.80%, Infosys down by 1.68% and TCS was down by 1.55% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the rating agency ICRA in its latest report has said that cement demand in India is expected to grow by 8 percent in the financial year 2019-20, which may result in an improvement in the industry's utilisation to 71 percent in FY20 from 65 percent in FY18. It noted that improved capacity utilization is likely to support the price uptick which has been seen since March 2019. Besides, it pointed out that the growth in demand will be driven by a likely 18-20 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of capacity addition in FY20. 

According to the report, during April 2018-February 2019, the domestic cement production surged by around 13 percent as against 6 percent year-on-year growth in FY18. However, it said that a disproportionate part of the capacity addition is grinding opposed to clinker capacity. Thus, it noted that the actual production from new capacities could be lower. It added that with the incremental demand of around 24-28 million tonne being greater than the incremental supply, this is likely to translate to improved capacity utilization.

The agency further stated that while in some regions such as north, north-east and east, the cement players' utilisation is likely to be higher than the national average, in other regions such as south and west, the utilisation is likely to remain muted given the past capacity overhang. It also pointed out that cement production remains healthy supported by the demand in south India, primarily in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana driven by irrigation, low cost housing and infrastructure projects.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11746.00, down by 2.15 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 11699.55 and 11789.30. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Yes Bank up by 3.90%, Bharti Infratel up by 2.88%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.98%, Power Grid up by 1.69% and Larsen & Toubro was up by 1.65%. On the flip side, Britannia Industries down by 2.90%, TCS down by 2.03%, Tata Motors down by 1.87%, GAIL India down by 1.81% and Infosys was down by 1.80% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 192.85 points or 0.65% to 29,891.96, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 36.76 points or 0.34% to 11,004.49 and KOSPI was up by 9.16 points or 0.42% to 2,212.75.

On the flip side, Straits Times trembled 20.50 points or 0.6% to 3,379.70 and Jakarta Composite was down by 70.12 points or 1.09% to 6,385.23.