Markets off day’s high

Indian equity markets fell sharply in late afternoon session to come off their intraday high points, despite firm cues from European markets. The street remained concerned with US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’ statement that India must recognize that its protectionist policies and tariff rules are hurting its companies and are a big impediment to attracting foreign direct investment. Traders failed to take any sense of relief with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the big picture presented in the Budget is backed with a plan to increase investment without compromising on the fiscal consolidation roadmap.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green, as Eurozone industrial production rebounded at a faster than expected pace in May largely driven by consumer goods output. The figures from Eurostat revealed that industrial output grew 0.9 percent month-on-month in May after declining 0.4 percent in April. This was the first increase in four months. Production was forecast to grow 0.2 percent. Asian markets were also trading in green.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38829.08, up by 5.97 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 38747.80 and 39021.84. There were 19 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.41%, while Small cap index was up by 0.27%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.22%, Basic Materials up by 0.68%, Consumer Durables up by 0.47%, Realty up by 0.39% and Healthcare up by 0.38%, while Capital Goods down by 1.28%, Telecom down by 0.53%, Industrials down by 0.48%, Oil & Gas down by 0.42% and PSU down by 0.28% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 2.65%, Tata Steel up by 2.64%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 2.50%, Sun Pharma up by 2.34% and Vedanta up by 2.05%. On the flip side, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.91%, Axis Bank down by 1.78%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.72%, Power Grid down by 1.49% and ONGC down by 1.31% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest survey has found that housing affordability worsened over the past 4 years as the house price-to-income (HPTI) ratio increased from 56.1 in March 2015 to 61.5 in March 2019.

As per the survey report, Mumbai remains the least affordable city in India, while Bhubaneswar remains the most affordable city. RBI also pointed towards rising median loan-to-income (LTI) ratio which also confirms worsening housing affordability. LTI ratio increased from 3 in March 2015 to 3.4 in March 2019.

The Central Bank’s report also noted that the median loan-to-value (LTV) ratio moved from 67.7 per cent to 69.6 per cent between March 2015 and March 2019 showing that banks have become increasingly risk tolerant.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11580.10, down by 2.80 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 11553.30 and 11639.55. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 2.76%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.68%, Sun Pharma up by 2.35%, Vedanta up by 2.32% and Tata Motors up by 2.04%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 2.67%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.99%, Axis Bank down by 1.70%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.61% and ONGC down by 1.47% were the top losers.

Asian market were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 76.46 points or 0.27% to 28,508.26, Nikkei 225 surged 42.37 points or 0.2% to 21,685.90, Shanghai Composite gained 17.73 points or 0.61% to 2,935.49, Straits Times advanced 6.75 points or 0.2% to 3,357.20 and KOSPI was up by 6.08 points or 0.29% to 2,086.66. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted dropped 19.07 points or 0.18% to 10,824.35 and Jakarta Composite was down by 21.86 points or 0.34% to 6,395.21.

European markets were trading mostly in green; FTSE gained 26.25 points or 0.35% to 7,536.07, CAC rose 26.97 points or 0.49% to 5,578.92, while DAX was down by 3.34 points or 0.03% to 12,328.78.