Markets off day’s low

Paring most of their losses, Indian equity benchmarks came off their intraday low points in late afternoon session. The street got relief, after IHS Markit said that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to cut interest rates one more time in June before rising inflation pressures and elevated fiscal deficits leave little room for further accommodation in rest of the year. RBI had cut interest rate by 25 basis points each in February and April to boost economic growth. However, key indices remained in red, as the Reserve Bank of India warned of the growing risks to fiscal consolidation of the states as their finances are saddled with farm loan waivers, income support schemes and the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) bonds for their power distribution companies. Meanwhile, traders took a note of the statistics ministry’s statement that an official committee will examine the NSS technical report on services sector enterprises, which has raised questions over the GDP data.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, as Norway's industrial production declined further in March. The figures from Statistics Norway showed that industrial production declined 6.5 percent year-on-year in March, following a 5.7 percent fall in February. Among sectors, output of electricity, gas and steam dropped 19.4 percent annually in March. Output in extraction and related services fell by 6.6 percent and that of mining and quarrying by 2.9 percent. Asian markets were also trading in red, after China took the hard line in trade talks, saying the communist country will take necessary countermeasures if the US follows through on a planned increase in tariffs on Chinese goods on Friday.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 37667.73, down by 121.40 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 37405.40 and 37780.46. There were 15 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.19%, while Small cap index was down by 0.39%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.70%, TECK up by 0.67%, Consumer Durables up by 0.62%, Auto up by 0.34% and Realty was up by 0.23%, while Energy down by 2.13%, Telecom down by 1.44%, Metal down by 1.18%, Power down by 1.02% and Oil & Gas was down by 0.83% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Yes Bank up by 5.19%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.93%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.51%, TCS up by 1.23% and Tata Motors up by 1.19%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 2.75%, Coal India down by 2.19%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.99%, NTPC down by 1.83% and Asian Paints down by 1.24% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the industry body, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) seemed a little optimistic over outlook of telecom sector in near term, as it said that stability and rationality may return to the telecom market by the fourth quarter of the current fiscal (Q4 FY20).

COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews said that the telecom operators will look at getting more offerings like content, e-commerce and financial services aggregated onto their networks to enhance revenue streams and arrest declines in topline and bottomline.

Further, Mathews noted that ‘From an industry perspective, we have probably seen the worst of churn, and worst of intensity of cutting of tariffs, so we are seeing more rationality coming in because of the challenge of raising finances. The question of how bad is it going to be is past...We are looking at a more positive dimension.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11329.10, down by 30.35 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 11255.05 and 11357.60. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Zee Entertainment up by 8.37%, Yes Bank up by 5.23%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.14%, Titan up by 1.59% and Bajaj Finance up by 1.43%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 2.84%, Coal India down by 2.51%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.30%, BPCL down by 2.26% and NTPC down by 2.03% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in red; Straits Times decreased 14.56 points or 0.44% to 3,269.28, Hang Seng declined 651.83 points or 2.25% to 28,351.37, Taiwan Weighted slipped 190.04 points or 1.74% to 10,733.67, Jakarta Composite fell 46.54 points or 0.74% to 6,223.66, Shanghai Composite decreased 41.37 points or 1.43% to 2,852.39, Nikkei 225 tumbled 200.46 points or 0.93% to 21,402.13 and KOSPI was down by 66.00 points or 3.04% to 2,102.01.

All European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 declined 21.05 points or 0.29% to 7,249.95, France’s CAC fell 61.85 points or 1.14% to 5,355.74 and Germany’s DAX was down by 72.28 points or 0.59% to 12,107.65.