Bearish trend continues on Dalal Street in late trade

Indian equity benchmarks continued their bearish trend on Dalal Street in late trade as traders remained on sidelines ahead of macro-economic data. Retail inflation and industrial production data for May and April, respectively, due to be released later in the day. Offloading in realty and capital goods stocks created the selling pressure, however metal and energy stocks witnessed some buying. Weakness in European and Asian counters too dampened sentiments after US President Donald Trump said he was holding up a trade deal with China till Beijing agrees to four or five major points.

Back home, traders remained anxious with former Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian’s statement that country’s growth has been overestimated by nearly 2.5 per cent under both UPA and NDA rule. The actual growth is likely to be lower, at nearly 4.5 per cent, down from 7 per cent between 2011-12 and 2016-17. In scrip specific developments, ADAG stocks trading under pressure after Price Waterhouse & Co Chartered Accountants LLP (PwC) resigned as one of the statutory auditors of Reliance Capital and Reliance Home Finance citing certain ‘observations or transactions’ in its assessment which if not resolved satisfatorily might be significant or material to their financial results.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 39776.12, down by 174.34 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 39623.53 and 39982.10. There were 6 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index shed 0.61%, while Small cap index was down by 0.39%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.74%, Energy up by 0.24%, Basic Materials up by 0.04%, Oil & Gas up by 0.01% and FMCG was up by 0.01%, while Realty down by 1.51%, Capital Goods down by 1.07%, Telecom down by 1.04%, Bankex down by 0.93% and Auto was down by 0.82% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 2.76%, ONGC up by 0.95%, Vedanta up by 0.74%, Reliance Industries up by 0.50% and ITC up by 0.09%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 2.98%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.45%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.43%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.24% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.23% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government is planning a new labour legislation that would merge 44 labour laws under four categories. The four categories will be wages, social security, industrial safety and welfare, and industrial relations. The move is aimed at helping investors and accelerating growth.

Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar has said that a new Labour Bill will be introduced in the coming session of the Parliament. He also said the draft bill will be placed before the Union Cabinet after which it will be introduced in Lok Sabha, possibly in the second week of the coming Parliament session. He added that all major labour unions in the country were consulted by the government for the new labour laws.

It is expected that the laws related to social security, including the Employees' Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, Employees' State Insurance Corporation Act, Maternity Benefits Act, Building and Other Construction Workers Act and the Employees' Compensation Act will be merged to create a single social security law or code. The Minimum Wages Act, the Payment of Wages Act, the Payment of Bonus Act, the Equal Remuneration Act and a few others are likely to be merged.

Several industrial safety and welfare laws such as the Factories Act, the Mines Act and the Dock Workers (Safety, Health and Welfare) Act, will be merged to create a single category on industrial safety and welfare. The Labour Code on Industrial Relations will combine Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, the Trade Unions Act, 1926, and the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11908.65, down by 56.95 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 11866.35 and 11962.45. There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 2.77%, GAIL India up by 1.31%, ONGC up by 0.83%, Britannia Industries up by 0.71% and Vedanta up by 0.53%. On the flip side, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 9.13%, Yes Bank down by 3.33%, Bharti Infratel down by 2.81%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.04% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.57% were the top losers.

Most of the Asian markets are trading in red; Nikkei 225 declined 74.56 points or 0.35% to 21,129.72, Straits Times decreased 6.71 points or 0.21% to 3,202.87, Hang Seng tumbled 480.88 points or 1.73% to 27,308.46, KOSPI slipped 3.06 points or 0.14% to 2,108.75, Jakarta Composite decreased 29.81 points or 0.47% to 6,276.18 and Shanghai Composite was down by 16.34 points or 0.56% to 2,909.38. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted was up by 7.90 points or 0.07% to 10,615.66.

European markets are trading in red; FTSE declined 43.02 points or 0.58% to 7,355.43, CAC dropped 39.59 points or 0.73% to 5,368.86 and DAX was down by 78.51 points or 0.65% to 12,077.30.