Benchmarks continue to trade in negative zone

Indian equity benchmarks continued their lackluster trade in early noon session, amid negative signals from other Asian markets. Selling was appeared in FMCG, Telecom and Power stocks on BSE sectoral front, dragging Sensex 153 points. Sentiments remain undermined as India’s credit rating outlook was cut to negative by Moody’s Investors Service, the first step toward a downgrade, as concerns mount the economic slowdown will be prolonged and debt will rise. Moody’s projects a budget deficit of 3.7% of gross domestic product in the year through March 2020. Selling further crept in with the ICRA’s report that the government's Rs 25,000-crore fund to complete about 1,500 stalled affordable and mid-income housing projects is not adequate. Meanwhile, government reacted strongly to Moody's Investor Service changing its outlook on India's rating to negative, saying the fundamentals of the economy remain quite robust and series of reforms undertaken recently would stimulate investments.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red as participants remained cautious amid uncertainty about a possible US-Chinese agreement to roll back tariffs in their trade conflicts. Back on street, in scrip specific developments, shares of Duke Offshore jumped on bagging contract from Daewoo-Tata projects JV .However, UPL slipped on reporting 61% fall in Q2 consolidated net profit.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40499.84, down by 153.90 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 40452.26 and 40630.56. There were 11 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.07%, while Small cap index was up by 0.10%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.17%, Auto up by 0.73%, Bankex up by 0.64%, Consumer Durables up by 0.58% and Consumer Discretionary was up by 0.35%, while FMCG down by 1.29%, Telecom down by 1.21%, Power down by 0.96%, Energy down by 0.94% and PSU was down by 0.90% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Yes Bank up by 2.56%, Indusind Bank up by 2.49%, ICICI Bank up by 2.33%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.07% and Kotak Mahindra Bank was up by 0.63%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 2.74%, ITC down by 1.79%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.76%, Asian Paints down by 1.50% and Tata Steel was down by 1.48% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to pave the way for development and contribute to employees' welfare, the government is all set to frame new rules to regulate private security agencies. In this regard, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has invited comments and suggestions from individuals and organizations on the draft Private Security Agencies Central (Amendment) Model Rules, 2019.

The government envisages to improve the level of the enforcement of the act and the rules. Therefore, it has been decided to consider modification in the model rules made under section 24 of the act to bring in substantial improvement in its enforcement.

As per the ministry, since the private security agency licensing portal has been launched, there will be no need for manual police verification of details of directors, partners or proprietors of companies at the time of applying for license. The verification of antecedents will be facilitated through electronic databases of crime and criminal like the Crime and Criminal Tracking Networks and Systems (CCTNS) and the Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11958.50, down by 53.55 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 11948.50 and 11996.55. There were 14 stocks advancing against 36 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Yes Bank up by 2.41%, ICICI Bank up by 2.33%, Indusind Bank up by 2.30%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.17% and Kotak Mahindra Bank was up by 0.90%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 4.12%, Sun Pharma down by 2.69%, GAIL India down by 2.42%, UPL down by 2.20% and BPCL was down by 1.87% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red, Hang Seng decreased 149.62 points or 0.54% to 27,697.61, KOSPI fell 8.50 points or 0.4% to 2,135.79, Taiwan Weighted dropped 27.02 points or 0.23% to 11,579.54, Shanghai Composite declined 0.77 points or 0.03% to 2,977.94, Jakarta Composite lost 3.61 points or 0.06% to 6,162.01 and Straits Times was down by 30.48 points or 0.93% to 3,255.24. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 was up by 64.16 points or 0.28% to 23,394.48.