Indian bourses continue to trade in positive territory

Indian equity benchmarks continued their trade in green in afternoon session, on the back of buying by funds and retail investors despite weak Asian cues. Sentiments remained positive with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that total bad loans of commercial banks declined by Rs 1.02 lakh crore to Rs 9.34 lakh crore in the 2018-19 fiscal on the back of steps taken by the government. Traders also took a note of Trump's administration stating that there is an “enormous potential” for growth in the India-United States (US) relationship. They also exuded confidence that the ongoing trade issues could be worked through because of the friendship between the two nations. However, gains remained capped as key corporate results remained in focus. On the sectoral front, renewable energy sector remained in focus after the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) said that investments in the clean energy sector may be hampered if policy uncertainty in the renewable energy sector persists.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, as trade tensions between the U.S. and China rose to the forefront again. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 39248.89, up by 117.85 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 39081.14 and 39284.73. There were 17 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.15%, while Small cap index was up by 0.14%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.91%, TECK up by 0.87%, FMCG up by 0.64%, Basic Materials up by 0.54% and Bankex was up by 0.46%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.69%, Energy down by 0.59%, Utilities down by 0.58%, Auto down by 0.35% and Power was down by 0.25% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.43%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.09%, HCL Tech up by 1.99%, SBI up by 1.17% and Hindustan Unilever was up by 1.04%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 2.94%, ONGC down by 1.48%, Axis Bank down by 0.95%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.87% and NTPC was  down by 0.84% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, In order to develop a Broadband Readiness Index (BRI) for Indian States and Union Territories (UT) (2019-2022), the Department of Telecom (DoT) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). The first estimate will be made in 2019 and subsequently every year until 2022. The proposed index will appraise the condition of the underlying digital infrastructure and related factors at the State/UT level.

The Broadband Readiness Index will be consist of two parts. Part one will focus on infrastructure development based on the measurement of nine parameters including availability of state policy on right of way (RoW) & towers, percentage of mobile towers connected with fibre and adoption of the national building code 2016 by the state.

Part two will consist of demand side parameters which will be captured through primary surveys. It will include indicators such as percentage of households using computers/ laptops with internet connection, percentage of households with fixed broadband connection and internet users as a percentage of the population. The primary survey will be conducted annually until 2022.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11690.85, up by 28.25 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 11651.15 and 11706.65. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were UPL up by 2.70%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.43%, Zee Entertainment up by 1.98%, HCL Tech up by 1.98% and Tech Mahindra was up by 1.86%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 4.48%, GAIL India down by 2.82%, ONGC down by 1.51%, Coal India down by 1.16% and Axis Bank was down by 1.05% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red; Hang Seng decreased 90.27 points or 0.32% to 28,529.35, Taiwan Weighted dropped 57.57 points or 0.53% to 10,828.48, KOSPI fell 18.95 points or 0.91% to 2,072.92, Straits Times trembled 0.57 points or 0.02% to 3,359.46, Shanghai Composite declined 7.72 points or 0.26% to 2,929.90, Jakarta Composite lost 13.62 points or 0.21% to 6,388.26 and Nikkei 225 was down by 66.07 points or 0.31% to 21,469.18.