Bourses turn positive in afternoon deals

Indian equities erased all losses to turn positive in afternoon session, on account of buying in Realty, Metal and banking stocks. The sentiments turned optimistic with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that India’s services sector has huge potential to generate job opportunities and push country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. He suggested that the ministry, state and industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) can work on some kind of policies and enablers to push the growth of 12 champion sectors being identified by the government. However, gains remain capped as Fitch Solutions raised India's fiscal deficit forecast to 3.6 percent of the GDP for this fiscal year, from 3.4 percent previously, due to weak revenue collections resulting from sluggish economic growth and government's sweeping corporate tax rate cut. On the sectoral front, Sugar stocks were in focus after Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said total sugar production in the country in the current sugar season would be around 260 lakh tonnes, nearly 20 per cent lower than the 2019-20 season’s 331.61 lakh tonnes.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, as investors awaited further developments in U.S.-China trade talks. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40465.83, up by 217.60 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 40037.53 and 40478.88. There were 23 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.26%, while Small cap index was down by 0.12%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.57%, Metal up by 1.37%, Bankex up by 1.28%, Capital Goods up by 0.90% and Industrials was up by 0.63%, while Consumer Durables down by 4.52%, Telecom down by 1.77%, Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services down by 0.35%, Energy down by 0.22% and PSU was down by 0.02% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 2.40%, Indusind Bank up by 2.19%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.07%, ICICI Bank up by 1.91% and Sun Pharma was up by 1.84%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.20%, HCL Tech. down by 0.82%, TCS down by 0.55%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.53% and Reliance Industries was down by 0.51% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in yet another major decision for the benefit of farmers and the cash-strapped sugar mills, the central government has declared that no separate environment clearance is required to produce additional ethanol from B-heavy molasses as it does not add to the pollution load. Sugar mills and farmers have been at loggerheads because of non-payment of dues to the latter. The mill owners have maintained that due to excess production of sugar and fall in the price, even they had not been getting their dues.

As of June 2019, the mills owed nearly Rs 20,000 crore to farmers across the country. With a smooth obstacle-free production of additional ethanol, the crisis may ease. The environment ministry said with the incentives, sugar mills are expected to undertake production of ethanol from B-heavy molasses and other by-produces or products. It also said this shall result in incidental increase in the production of ethanol without any increase in the total pollution load in the existing distilleries or sugar mills to which environmental clearances have already been granted.

Ministry further said to obviate the need for undertaking fresh environment impact assessment (EIA) or public consultation in all such cases of increase in production capacity, the government has given a clarification relating to the issuance of environmental clearance in order to facilitate the sugar mills to undertake additional production of ethanol from B-heavy Molasses in place of using C-heavy Molasses without any increase in the total pollution load. As per the ministry, it has been clarified that all such proposals to undertake additional ethanol production from B-heavy molasses/sugarcane juice/sugar syrup/sugar may be considered under the provisions of the EIA notification, 2006, by the expert appraisal committee for granting environmental clearance.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11964.70, up by 47.50 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 11850.25 and 11974.50. There were 36 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Zee Entertainment up by 2.90%, Cipla up by 2.65%, Infosys up by 2.31%, Indusind Bank up by 1.96% and Dr. Reddys Lab was up by 1.92%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 9.30%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.08%, HCL Technologies down by 0.85%, Indian Oil Corp. down by 0.73% and Bajaj Finserv was down by 0.62% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 51.83 points or 0.22% to 23,303.82, Hang Seng increased 34.50 points or 0.12% to 27,717.90, Straits Times advanced 12.62 points or 0.39% to 3,261.25, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 9.04 points or 0.08% to 11,653.07 and KOSPI was up by 1.51 points or 0.07% to 2,144.15.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 18.41 points or 0.62% to 2,973.15 and Jakarta Composite was down by 36.54 points or 0.58% to 6,227.61.