Indian equities remain in red terrain

Indian equity benchmarks continued their trade in red territory in afternoon session, on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters, tracking weak cues from global equities amid concerns of a global economic slowdown. Cautiousness remained in markets with India Meteorological Department’s statement that Monsoon deficiency in June this year was the highest for the month since 2015. The month ended with 33 per cent deficiency which translates to around 67 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA). However, further down side got restricted with data showing that the growth of India's eight core sectors has improved to 5.1% in May 2019 against 4.1% in the same month last year, helped by rise in output in steel and electricity. Though, growth in the core sectors slowed to 5.1% in May 2019 as compared to revised 6.3 percent in April 2019. On the sectoral front, stocks related to steel sector remained in focus after the Ministry of Steel has released draft steel scrap policy, which is aimed at promoting circular economy in the steel sector and produce high-quality ferrous scrap for quality steel production thus reducing dependence on imports.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, as investors weighed the tariff truce between the U.S. and China and the potential for a trade deal. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 39578.29, down by 108.21 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 39499.19 and 39811.68. There were 10 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.03%, while Small cap index was down by 0.20%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 0.76%, Utilities up by 0.70%, Oil & Gas up by 0.67%, Telecom up by 0.39% and PSU up by 0.38%, while Realty down by 1.92%, Healthcare down by 0.84%, Bankex down by 0.65%, Auto down by 0.54% and Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services was down by 0.41% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 2.14%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.08%, NTPC up by 0.98%, HDFC up by 0.49% and Power Grid up by 0.41%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 6.41%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 2.82%, Sun Pharma down by 2.79%, Tata Motors down by 2.44% and Bajaj Auto down by 1.18% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Steel has released draft steel scrap policy, which is aimed at promoting circular economy in the steel sector and produce high-quality ferrous scrap for quality steel production thus reducing dependence on imports. The policy also aims to promote resource efficiency in the steel sector. The policy envisages to set up environmentally sound management system for ferrous scrap which can encourage processing and recycling of ferrous scraps through organised and scientific metal scrapping centres across India to minimise dependency on import of scrap and make India self-sufficient in scrap availability. 

According to the draft dated June 28, 2019, the ministry or its appointed agency or other designated statutory bodies shall ensure that the policy is implemented in accordance with the state of the art environmental friendly technologies and in compliance with applicable acts, rules, and regulations. Other objectives are to decongest the Indian cities from end of-life vehicles (ELVs) and reuse of ferrous scrap, processing and recycling of products in an organised, safe and environment friendly manner and to evolve a responsive ecosystem by involving all stakeholders among others.

The draft policy said there is a worldwide trend to increase steel production using scrap as the main raw material as recycling of scrap helps in conservation of vital natural resources besides other numerous benefits. It also said that the use of every tonne of scrap shall save 1.1 tonne of iron ore, 630 kg of coking coal and 55 kg of limestone.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11836.40, down by 29.20 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 11814.70 and 11892.70. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were UPL up by 2.83%, ONGC up by 2.14%, Indian Oil Corporation up by 1.15%, BPCL up by 1.10% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.99%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 6.23%, Sun Pharma down by 2.81%, Tata Motors down by 2.62%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.30% and ICICI Bank down by 1.06% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Taiwan Weighted dropped 30.34 points or 0.28% to 10,865.12, Straits Times trembled 9.69 points or 0.29% to 3,362.57, KOSPI fell 7.72 points or 0.36% to 2,122.02 and Jakarta Composite lost 6.06 points or 0.09% to 6,373.63.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite gained 2.77 points or 0.09% to 3,047.67, Nikkei 225 surged 24.30 points or 0.11% to 21,754.27 and Hang Seng increased 358.04 points or 1.25% to 28,900.66.