Bourses turn negative in afternoon deals

Indian equities erased all the gains to turn negative in afternoon session, on account of selling in Realty, Banking and Telecom stocks. The sentiments turned pessimistic as CRISIL has cut India’s GDP growth to 6.3% in FY20. The global rating agency said that a growth of 5% in the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal corroborates that India’s economic slowdown is deeper and more broad-based than suspected. However, losses were limited as some optimism remained among the traders with a private report that that foreign direct investment (FDI) equity inflows rose 28% in the first quarter of 2019-20 to $16.3 billion from $12.7 billion in the year-ago period. In the currency front, the rupee emerged strong in early trade, and was trading at 71.82 against US Dollar, higher by 30 paise. On the sectoral front, Auto sector remained in focus with Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) President Rajan Wadhera’s statement that Auto industry, which has been witnessing continuous de-growth, is staring at a tough road ahead for the rest of the year due to transition to Bharat Stage Six (BS VI) vehicular emission norms by April 1, 2020 from BS IV.

On the global front, Asian markets were mostly trading in green, amid encouraging global developments, including British lawmakers seeking a less chaotic exit from the European Union and the potential easing of political tensions in Hong Kong. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36583.22, down by 141.52 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 36561.87 and 36898.99. There were 16 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.09%, while Small cap index was up by 0.55%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.16%, Oil & Gas up by 1.90%, Utilities up by 1.56%, Auto up by 1.49% and PSU was up by 1.40%, while Realty down by 1.19%, Bankex down by 0.99%, Telecom down by 0.29% and FMCG was down by 0.01% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 4.61%, ONGC up by 4.16%, Tata Motors - DVR up by 3.80%, NTPC up by 3.14% and Vedanta was up by 1.94%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 2.60%, ICICI Bank down by 1.89%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.48%, HCL Technologies down by 1.33% and SBI was down by 1.25% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, raising concerns, credit rating agency, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report has said that headwinds to foreign portfolio investment (FPI) flows into India are likely to continue over the near-to-medium term despite the accommodative global monetary policy stance and the government's efforts to alleviate uncertainty regarding the higher surcharge.

The report highlighted that a gamut of factors such as slower-than-expected demand growth in major economies, geopolitical and trade tensions and a gradual weakening of the economic growth prospects in India have contributed to a build-up of risk aversion which has impeded the demand for emerging market (EM) debt instruments.

As per the report, the corporate spread over the benchmark has only widened, notwithstanding a series of rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of India and the softening of government security yields to a five-year low. It also said that as the banking system struggles to ensure transmission of the repo rate cuts amidst high deposit competition and low risk appetite, the demand for corporate debt instruments has remained lackluster in FY20.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10826.30, down by 18.35 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 10818.20 and 10920.10. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 4.84%, Coal India up by 4.56%, ONGC up by 4.24%, BPCL up by 4.11% and NTPC was up by 3.18%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 2.61%, ICICI Bank down by 1.90%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.47%, HCL Technologies down by 1.35% and Kotak Mahindra Bank was down by 1.21% were the top losers.

Asian markets were mostly trading in green; Nikkei 225 surged 436.80 points or 2.12% to 21,085.94, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 99.62 points or 0.93% to 10,756.93, Shanghai Composite gained 32.47 points or 1.1% to 2,989.88, Jakarta Composite soared 27.76 points or 0.44% to 6,297.42, KOSPI rose 16.22 points or 0.82% to 2,004.75 and Straits Times was up by 7.02 points or 0.22% to 3,137.59.

On the flip side, Hang Seng was down by 167.49 points or 0.63% to 26,355.74.