Key indices continue to trade lower in afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued their weak trade in afternoon session, on the back of sustained selling activities by market-participants amid weakness across Asian peers. The mood on the street remained cautious with government data showing that India's factory output growth, measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), slowed down for second straight month to 2.0% in June 2019 as compared to 7% in June 2018 and it is also lower than 3.1% in May 2019. The slowdown was mainly due to poor performance of the manufacturing and mining sectors and a contraction in the capital goods and consumer durables sectors. The key indices also suffered due a sinking rupee which slipped 43 paise to quote at 71.20 against the US dollar so far in intra-day trade. On the sectoral front, majority of auto stocks were trading lower, with data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) indicating that declining for the ninth consecutive month, domestic passenger vehicle (PV) sales dropped 30.98 percent to 2,00,790 units in July, from 2,90,931 units in the same period a year ago.

On the global front, Asian counters were trading in red, as fears about a drawn out Sino-US trade war, protests in Hong Kong and a crash in Argentina’s peso currency drove investors to safe harbours like bonds, gold, and the yen. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 37455.65, down by 126.26 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 37321.28 and 37755.16. There were 11 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 1.09%, while Small cap index was down by 0.40%.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 7.25%, Oil & Gas up by 2.84% and Consumer Durables was up by 0.63%, while Telecom down by 3.95%, Auto down by 2.09%, Capital Goods down by 1.72%, Power down by 1.69% and TECK was down by 1.61% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 10.59%, Sun Pharma up by 2.63%, Power Grid up by 1.24%, Asian Paints up by 1.04% and Bajaj Auto was up by 1.03%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 7.00%, Bharti Airtel down by 5.14%, NTPC down by 4.93%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 4.67% and Maruti Suzuki was down by 2.92% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, a joint study carried out by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI) and CBRE has stated that India's economic transition, workforce expansion and urbanization will offer vast development and investment opportunities for the real estate sector in the next decade, leading to significant growth in housing, office, retail and warehousing space. It also noted that by 2030, the sector would expand immensely, led by new asset classes like coworking, coliving, student housing and real estate investment trusts (REITs).

The report projected that office space stock will touch one billion sq ft by 2030, with flexible workspace accounting for 8-10 percent of the total stock. It also estimated that the retail shopping centre stock will cross 120 million sq ft by 2030, whereas warehousing stock could touch 500 million sq ft by then. It pointed out that by the year 2030, residential real estate has the potential to almost double from the current stock of 1.5 million units in key cities.

According to the report, India continues to remain a high-priority market for long term growth potential as is evident from the increased investment flows in the last few years. It added that the country’s economic growth momentum is steady and it will only grow stronger in the next 10 years, as a result of positive policy reforms and emergence of a strong workforce.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11064.45, down by 45.20 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 11041.40 and 11145.90. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indiabulls Housing Finance up by 10.64%, Reliance Industries up by 10.32%, GAIL India up by 3.47%, Sun Pharma up by 2.23% and Titan Company was up by 1.72%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 9.07%, Bharti Airtel down by 5.59%, NTPC down by 5.04%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 4.77% and Eicher Motors was down by 3.34% were the top losers.

All the Asian counters were trading in red; Taiwan Weighted dropped 109.70 points or 1.05% to 10,362.66, Nikkei 225 slipped 229.38 points or 1.11% to 20,455.44, KOSPI fell 16.46 points or 0.85% to 1,925.83, Jakarta Composite lost 37.40 points or 0.6% to 6,213.20, Straits Times trembled 29.64 points or 0.94% to 3,139.30, Shanghai Composite declined 21.13 points or 0.75% to 2,793.86 and Hang Seng was down by 492.66 points or 1.91% to 25,332.06.