Bourses trade slightly lower in early noon session

Key Indian benchmarks were trading slightly lower in early noon session, with Sensex lost 22 points, while Nifty was down by 9 points. Broader indices were trading in mixed with the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.38%, while Small cap index was up by 0.17%. Traders were seen in selling position for Telecom, Metal and Healthcare stocks, while buying was witnessed in Consumer Durables, Realty and Consumer Discretionary stocks. Market cooled off with government data showing that consumer price index-based inflation (CPI) for August crept up slightly to 3.21% year-on-year, compared with 3.15% in July, driven by a sharp rise in food prices. Sentiments were too downbeat with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) statement that India's economic growth is much weaker than expected, attributing the reasons for corporate and environmental regulatory uncertainty and lingering weaknesses in some non-bank financial companies. However, downside remain capped with commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that government would soon announce guidelines for extending foreign exchange credit to exporters. Such foreign exchange loans will be made available to exporters at very competitive rates, likely to be lower than even 4%.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green following the fresh hints of progress in the US-China trade dispute. Meanwhile, interest rate cut by European Central Bank and introduction of batch of easy money measures for boosting the region’s sluggish economy, also buoyed investor sentiments. Back on street, in scrip specific developments, shares of Gravita India surged as its arm enhanced production capacity of existing lead recycling plant. Besides, Voltas inched up on eyeing 20% volume growth during FY20.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 37081.76, down by 22.52 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 37000.09 and 37244.34. There were 14 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in mixed; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.38%, while Small cap index was up by 0.17%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.38%, Realty up by 0.87%, Consumer discretionary up by 0.44%, Auto up by 0.33% and IT was up by 0.30%, while Telecom down by 0.86%, Metal down by 0.79%, Healthcare down by 0.78%, PSU down by 0.60% and Capital Goods was down by 0.35% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.05%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.00%, ICICI Bank up by 0.86%, HCL Technologies up by 0.79% and Infosys was up by 0.73%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 4.86%, Tata Steel down by 1.50%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.19%, Tata Motors down by 1.17% and Bharti Airtel was down by 1.12% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest report has showed that bank credit and deposits slowed to 10.24 percent and 9.73 percent to Rs 96.80 trillion and Rs 127.80 trillion, respectively in the fortnight to August 30. In the previous fortnight to August 16, credit had increased by 11.64 percent to Rs 96.82 trillion and deposits grew by 10.15 percent to Rs 126.80 trillion. In the year-ago fortnight, advances stood at Rs 87.80 trillion and deposits at Rs 116.46 trillion.

On year-on-year basis, the non-food bank credit rose 11.4 percent in July 2019 from 10.6 percent in July 2018. Advances to the services sector decelerated to 15.2 percent in the month from 23 percent in the year-ago month.

Credit to agriculture & allied activities rose 6.8 percent in July 2019 compared with a rise of 6.6 percent in the same month last year. Loans to industry increased by 6.1 percent in July as compared to 0.3 percent a year ago. Personal loans rose 17 percent in July compared to an increase of 16.7 percent in July 2018.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10973.10, down by 9.70 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 10945.75 and 11023.85. There were 18 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Titan Company up by 2.68%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.04%, ICICI Bank up by 0.96%, HCL Technologies up by 0.81% and Mahindra & Mahindra was up by 0.75%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 4.86%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.99%, Indiabulls Housing down by 1.98%, Tata Steel down by 1.71% and Grasim Industries was down by 1.21% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in green, Nikkei 225 surged 244.14 points or 1.12% to 22,003.75, Jakarta Composite soared 1.46 points or 0.02% to 6,343.63, Straits Times advanced 14.41 points or 0.45% to 3,209.37 and Hang Seng was up by 156.19 points or 0.58% to 27,243.82.