Bourses trim gains to come off day’s high

Key Indian benchmarks trimmed most of their gains in afternoon session to come off their intraday high points, as Auto, Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services and Consumer Durables shares witnessed selling. Traders turned cautious with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) stating that not being part of the proposed mega trade deal Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will harm India's exports and investment flow in the future by cutting off the country from the trading bloc comprising 15 other nations in terms of preferential access. However, the trade remained in positive terrain, as some optimism remained among the traders with report that highlighting India's economic growth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country is among the top 10 destinations for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the world and had received $286 billion of FDI in the last five years. In the currency front, the rupee edged up 13 paise to 70.67 against the dollar in early trade on fresh selling of the US currency by exporters. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, as growing optimism over U.S.-China trade talks and upbeat U.S. job data boosted global investors' appetite for riskier assets.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40249.02, up by 83.99 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 40196.54 and 40483.21. There were 18 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.03%, while Small cap index was up by 0.36%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.87%, Telecom up by 2.00%, Basic Materials up by 1.79%, IT up by 1.35% and TECK up by 1.22%, while Auto down by 1.30%, Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services down by 0.85%, Consumer Durables down by 0.69%, FMCG down by 0.32% and Realty down by 0.24% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 4.14%, Infosys up by 4.00%, Vedanta up by 3.14%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.31% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.24%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.17%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.15%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.36%, Axis Bank down by 1.16% and Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.05% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the outstanding dues owed by distribution utilities to power producers rose around 37 percent to Rs 69,558 crore in September 2019 as compared to the same month last year, reflecting stress in the sector. According to web portal and app namely PRAAPTI (Payment Ratification and Analysis in Power procurement for Bringing Transparency in Invoicing of generators), distribution companies (discoms) owed a total of Rs 50,583 crore to power generation companies in September 2018.

In September this year, total overdue amount, which was not cleared even after 60 days of grace period offered by generators, stood at Rs 52,408 crore as against Rs 34,658 crore in the same month in 2018. Power producers give 60 days' time to discoms for paying bills for the supply of electricity. After that, outstanding dues become overdue and generators charge penal interest on that in most cases. In order to give a relief to power generation companies, the government has enforced a payment security mechanism from August 1. Under this mechanism, discoms are required to open letters of credit for getting power supply.

Data on the portal indicates that outstanding as well as overdue amount have decreased over the preceding month. In August 2019, total outstanding on discoms was Rs 80,087 crore, while the total overdue amount was Rs 60,935 crore. The August 2019 figures of dues and overdues have been revised upwards from Rs 78,020 crore and Rs 59,532 crore provisional numbers released last month on the portal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11916.95, up by 26.35 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 11906.55 and 11989.15. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were JSW Steel up by 5.81%, Bharti Infratel up by 5.26%, Tata Steel up by 4.44%, Infosys up by 3.87% and Vedanta up by 3.17%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 5.22%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.31%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.23%, IOC down by 1.51% and Eicher Motors down by 1.46% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 392.70 points or 1.45% to 27,493.46, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 157.32 points or 1.38% to 11,556.85, Shanghai Composite gained 19.30 points or 0.65% to 2,977.50 and KOSPI rose 30.04 points or 1.43% to 2,130.24.

On the global front, Straits Times trembled 0.44 points or 0.01% to 3,228.99 and Jakarta Composite lost 12.87 points or 0.21% to 6,194.32.