Key indices continue down move in afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued their down move 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 a report that 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. Moreover, the rupee depreciating by 15 paise to 70.71 against the dollar in early trade, too weighed on the sentiments. Meanwhile, the government will soon set up a working group on the proposed new industrial policy which is aimed at promoting emerging sectors and modernizing existing industries. The policy will also look to reduce regulatory hurdles and making India a manufacturing hub.  On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, shrugging off news that the U.S. administration is considering delisting Chinese companies from U.S. stock exchanges.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38417.24, down by 405.33 points or 1.04% after trading in a range of 38411.39 and 38873.12. There were 7 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 1.74%, while Small cap index was down by 1.63%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.75%, TECK up by 1.53% and Telecom was up by 1.16%, while Realty down by 2.83%, Metal down by 2.75%, Bankex down by 2.75%, Healthcare down by 2.02% and Basic Materials was down by 1.92% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HCL Technologies up by 3.64%, Infosys up by 2.38%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.83%, TCS up by 1.51% and Tech Mahindra was up by 0.64%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 14.65%, Indusind Bank down by 7.04%, Vedanta down by 3.63%, SBI down by 3.52% and Tata Steel was down by 3.42% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government will soon set up a working group on the proposed new industrial policy which is aimed at promoting emerging sectors and modernising existing industries. The policy will also look to reduce regulatory hurdles and making India a manufacturing hub. Earlier, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) had prepared the policy and sent it for the Union Cabinet approval, but certain new suggestions have been made with regard to the policy.

The working group will rework on it and submit the same to the DPIIT. The group will have members from different government departments of the Centre and states, as well as from industry chambers, including the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). This will be the third industrial policy after the ones released in 1956 and 1991. It will replace the industrial policy of 1991 which was prepared in the backdrop of the balance of payment crisis. The DPIIT had initiated the process of formulation of a new industrial policy in May 2017. The new policy will subsume the National Manufacturing Policy (NMP).

It was proposed that the new policy would aim at making India a manufacturing hub by promoting Make in India. The department had floated discussion paper on the policy with an aim to create jobs for the next two decades, promote foreign technology transfer and attract $100 billion FDI annually. It had outlined several constraints to industrial growth -- inadequate infrastructure; restrictive labor laws; complicated business environment; slow technology adoption; low productivity; challenges for trade; and inadequate expenditure on R&D and innovation.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11401.05, down by 111.35 points or 0.97% after trading in a range of 11390.80 and 11504.60. There were 10 stocks advancing against 39 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Tech. up by 3.55%, Infosys up by 2.56%, UPL up by 1.64%, TCS up by 1.53% and Bharti Airtel was up by 1.12%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 14.15%, Indusind Bank down by 6.60%, Zee Entertainment down by 5.81%, Cipla down by 4.16% and Vedanta was down by 3.43% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 123.06 points or 0.56% to 21,755.84, Jakarta Composite lost 29.67 points or 0.48% to 6,167.22, Shanghai Composite declined 12.53 points or 0.43% to 2,919.64 and Straits Times was down by 6.92 points or 0.22% to 3,118.71.

On the flip side, KOSPI rose 13.12 points or 0.64% to 2,063.05 and Hang Seng was up by 153.15 points or 0.59% to 26,107.96.