Local bourses trade marginally in green in afternoon deals

In a volatile trade, Indian equities erased their earlier losses and started trading marginally in green in afternoon session, on account of buying in Banking, Consumer Durables and Telecom stocks. The sentiments turned optimistic with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that India is planning to spend $1.4 trillion on its infrastructure in the next five years, as part of its aim to become a $5 trillion economy by 2024. She also said the government has constituted an inter-ministerial task force to draw up annual National Infrastructure Pipeline for each of the five years, starting this fiscal i.e. 2019-20 to fiscal year (FY) 2024-25. Encouraging earnings by some companies along with firm trend in the Asian market also supported the market. However, further gains got restricted as traders remained cautious with a report that as many as 360 infrastructure projects, each worth Rs 150 crore or more, have shown cost overruns to the tune of over Rs 3.88 lakh crore owing to delays and other reasons. 

Asian markets were mostly trading in green, amid optimism about prospects for a Sino-US trade deal, while investors were sanguine yet another vote on Brexit would still avert a hard exit for Britain. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 39355.12, up by 56.74 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 39121.21 and 39426.47. There were 24 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.61%, while Small cap index was up by 0.82%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.87%, Consumer Durables up by 1.70%, Telecom up by 1.52%, Healthcare up by 1.49% and Realty was up by 1.12%, while IT down by 6.00%, TECK down by 4.97%, Utilities down by 0.09% and Power was down by 0.02% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Yes Bank up by 8.27%, ICICI Bank up by 4.12%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.31%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.21% and HDFC was up by 2.00%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 14.26%, HCL Technologies down by 2.43%, Tata Motors down by 2.23%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.95% and Tech Mahindra was down by 1.51% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that India is planning to spend $1.4 trillion on its infrastructure in the next five years, as part of its aim to become a $5 trillion economy by 2024. She said the government has constituted an inter-ministerial task force to draw up annual National Infrastructure Pipeline for each of the five years, starting this fiscal i.e. 2019-20 to fiscal year (FY) 2024-25. She said ‘as we envisage becoming a five trillion-dollar economy by 2024-25, our focus on creating world-class infrastructure has become even more resolute. If we spent $1.1 trillion on infrastructure in the last 10 years (2008-17), we now are going to invest about $1.4 trillion in the next five years.’

The minister has said that the government has taken various steps to enhance infrastructure investment by launching innovative financial vehicles like Infrastructure Debt Funds (IDFs), Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) and laying down a framework for municipal bonds. She said ‘we are already applying Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models in the country. We have adopted the Asset Recycling model to modernize existing infrastructure, like highways, while providing the government with upfront capital to support new infrastructure.’

Sitharaman further stated that the government is trying to develop brownfield assets as a separate asset class for infrastructure investment. She said such assets, having passed the stages of land acquisition and environmental and forest clearances, are considerably de-risked and hence, institutional investment from a pension, insurance, and sovereign wealth funds are forthcoming in such assets. She noted that another initiative is the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), which is aimed at channeling investments from both domestic and international sources into infrastructure. She added that India's experience with such innovative modes of funding holds an important example in the financing of infrastructure for other developing countries.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11691.40, up by 29.55 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 11631.50 and 11714.35. There were 40 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Yes Bank up by 8.27%, ICICI Bank up by 4.11%, Grasim Industries up by 2.52%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.18% and HDFC was up by 2.11%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 14.42%, HCL Tech. down by 2.45%, Tata Motors down by 2.23%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.59% and Asian Paints was down by 1.06% were the top losers.

Asian markets were mostly trading in green; Taiwan Weighted strengthened 87.10 points or 0.78% to 11,271.25, Hang Seng increased 46.99 points or 0.18% to 26,772.67, Straits Times advanced 27.42 points or 0.87% to 3,166.57, KOSPI rose 24.02 points or 1.16% to 2,088.86 and Shanghai Composite was up by 6.72 points or 0.23% to 2,946.34.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 15.36 points or 0.25% to 6,183.63.