Markets continue to trade in green in early noon deals

The local equity markets have pared some of their gains but are still trading in positive terrain in early noon session. Traders were seen in selling position for Yes Bank, Indusind Bank and TCS stocks, while buying was witnessed in Infosys, ONGC and HCL Technologies stocks. Sentiments got support with Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the government will set up a group of secretaries (GoS) under the ministry of finance to study the shortcomings of the Multi-State-Cooperatives. However, upside remained capped on report that India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has slashed the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for current fiscal year (FY20) to 6.1% for the second time in two months. Recently, the rating agency had revised its GDP growth estimate to 6.7% in August from of 7.3% in forecasted earlier.  Besides, with the Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections dropping sharply to a 19-month low in September, the government has constituted a committee of officers to suggest measures to augment collections, expand the tax base and check evasion. GST collections dropped sharply to a 19-month low of Rs 91,916 crore in September, reflecting a widening slowdown in the economy triggered by shrinking consumer demand. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading higher, on optimistic note by US President Donald Trump at the end of the first day of US-China trade talks in Washington DC. Back on home turf, in scrip specific developments, shares of Infosys gained ahead of July-September quarter (Q2FY20) results announcement due later in the day. However, shares of Indiabulls Housing Finance fell after the Reserve Bank of India rejected proposal of amalgamation.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 37945.44, up by 65.04 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 37737.85 and 38345.41. There were 21 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in mixed; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.08%, while Small cap index was up by 0.11%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.43%, IT up by 0.76%, Basic Materials up by 0.68%, TECK up by 0.61% and FMCG was up by 0.45%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.64%, Energy down by 0.61%, Healthcare down by 0.38%, Consumer Durables down by 0.26% and Bankex was down by 0.12% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 2.93%, ONGC up by 2.35%, HCL Technologies up by 1.96%, Vedanta up by 1.66% and Power Grid Corporation up by 1.31%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 8.79%, Indusind Bank down by 2.80%, TCS down by 1.93%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.24% and Sun Pharma was down by 1.12% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, International Air Transport Association (IATA) in its latest data has showed that India slipped to the fourth place in domestic air passenger traffic in August 2019 with passenger volume rising 3.7 percent in the month over the period year-ago, reflecting the deepening crisis in the economy spawned by slumping consumer demand. It noted that the country’s domestic air passenger market clocked an 8.9 percent growth in July 2019 when compared to the same month last year.

However, data showed that the average global demand for domestic travel climbed 4.7 percent in August 2019 compared to the same month last year, unchanged from the previous month.  It also noted that the average capacity globally rose 4.6 percent and load factor increased 0.1 percentage point to 85.9 percent on the average across seven major international aviation markets.

Data further indicated that China witnessed the highest air travel demand at 10.1 percent in August followed by Russia, which logged 6 percent growth during the month. The domestic passenger volume for the US increased 3.9 percent in August over August 2018. IATA said ‘while we saw a pick-up in passenger demand in August compared to July, growth remains below the long-term trend and well-down on the roughly 8.5 percent annual growth seen over 2016 to Q1 2018 period.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11272.60, up by 38.05 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 11189.40 and 11362.90. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Infosys up by 3.06%, ONGC up by 2.79%, Coal India up by 2.76%, Hindalco up by 2.74% and Vedanta was up by 2.23%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 7.69%, Indian Oil Corporation down by 2.43%, Indusind Bank down by 2.08%, Zee Entertainment down by 1.88% and TCS was down by 1.73% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green, KOSPI rose 25.40 points or 1.25% to 2,053.55, Straits Times advanced 25.19 points or 0.82% to 3,114.67, Nikkei 225 surged 232.16 points or 1.08% to 21,784.14, Jakarta Composite soared 61.77 points or 1.03% to 6,085.41, Hang Seng increased 644.34 points or 2.51% to 26,352.27 and Shanghai Composite was up by 19.76 points or 0.67% to 2,967.47.