Local bourses remain under pressure in early noon session

Indian bourses continued their weak trend in early noon session, with Sensex losing over 302.57 points and Nifty falling below the 11425 level, as market participants remained cautious with RBI’s data showing that India's forex reserves declined by $388 million to $428.572 billion for the week ended September 20 due to a slide in core currency and gold assets. In the week to September 20, foreign currency assets, a major component of overall reserves declined by $125 million to $396.670 billion. Broader indices were also lingering under pressure in early noon session. Traders’ mood remained down-beat with the report that the India had a ‘worrisome’ debt burden of over Rs 88 lakh crore at the first financial quarter of 2019 with the government apparently having no inkling to deal with the country’s economic slowdown. Market participants failed to take any sense of relief with report that after remaining net sellers for the past two months, foreign investors infused a net Rs 7,714 crore into the domestic capital markets in September following a slew of economic reforms by the government. Beside, Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari has stated that using bio-fuels can reduce crude oil imports which will help save foreign exchange on one hand also achieve the $5-trillion GDP goal by 2025.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, as investors awaited the release of the China Purchasing Managers’ Index expected later in the day. Back home, on the sectrol front, consumer durable industry stocks remained in the focus with report that consumer durable industry hopes to have double-digit growth during the festive season sales, despite concerns of economic slowdown.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38520.00, down by 302.57 points or 0.78% after trading in a range of 38465.97 and 38873.12. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remains unchanged on the index on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined1.32%, while Small cap index was down by 1.24%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.32%, TECK up by 1.03%, Energy up by 0.34% and Telecom was up by 0.09%, while Realty down by 2.74%, Bankex down by 2.39%, Metal down by 2.09%, Auto down by 1.65% and Healthcare was down by 1.57% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HCL Tech up by 2.18%, Infosys up by 1.86%, TCS up by 1.22%, Reliance Industries up by 0.68% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.47%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 11.68%, Indusind Bank down by 7.70%, ICICI Bank down by 3.07%, SBI down by 2.90% and Vedanta down by 2.70% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that ministries have cleared around Rs 40,000 crore out of the total outstanding dues of Rs 60,000 crore mainly to Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) for supply of goods and service and the remaining payments will be done in the next few days.

To give a push to infrastructure spending aimed at boosting growth, the minister also asked all the ministries to provide detailed capital expenditure plans for the next four quarters. She said the government should not sit on overdue payments. She also stated that the money should go to people who have been waiting for it and the money should reach the ground. She added that the idea here is to ensure there are no outstanding dues to suppliers of goods and services.
Sitharaman further said that the government's capital expenditure was on track and Budget estimates would be met. She also said the consumption was on rise and credit offtake was growing, which together should result in bouyancy in the economy.  

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11423.25, down by 89.15 points or 0.77% after trading in a range of 11410.25 and 11504.60. There were 13 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech up by 2.44%, UPL up by 2.33%, Infosys up by 2.04%, BPCL up by 1.32% and TCS up by 1.29%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 12.10%, Indusind Bank down by 7.56%, Zee Entertainment down by 6.32%, SBI down by 3.24% and ICICI Bank down by 3.03% were the top losers.

Asian market were mostly trading in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 178.39 points or 0.82% to 21,700.51,Jakarta Composite lost 35.62 points or 0.57% to 6,161.27, Straits Times trembled 6.63 points or 0.21% to 3,119.00 and Shanghai Composite declined 2.12 points or 0.07% to 2,930.05. On the flip side, KOSPI rose 12.75 points or 0.62% to 2,062.68 and Hang Seng was up by 168.80 points or 0.65% to 26,123.61.