Benchmarks extend losses in early noon session

The local equity markets continued to remain under pressure and are further plunging into negative territory in early noon session. The BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty are trading below the psychological 40,700 and 12,000 levels, respectively. Investors were shying away from taking positions as Crisil has sharply cut India’s Gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to 5.1% for the current financial year (FY20) from an earlier estimate of 6.3%. Besides, weakening trend on other Asian bourses also dampened the trading sentiments. Back home, on the Dalal Street, telecom counters continued to witness hammering from the bears followed by metal, basic materials and industrials counters. On the other hand, buying in Realty and Consumer Durables pockets were posing some resistance on the street. The market breadth on the BSE was negative; the losers outpaced the gainers in a ratio of 1300:717 while 149 shares were unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40666.92, down by 135.25 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 40661.68 and 40885.03. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.66%, while Small cap index was down by 0.39%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.81%, Consumer Durables up by 0.73%, IT up by 0.68%, Consumer Discretionary up by 0.16% and TECK was up by 0.14%, while Telecom down by 2.91%, Metal down by 2.63%, Basic Materials down by 1.55%, Industrials down by 0.97% and Power was down by 0.86% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto up by 2.21%, TCS up by 1.29%, Tech Mahindra up by 0.87%, Infosys up by 0.82% and Hero MotoCorp was up by 0.59%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 4.84%, Tata Steel down by 4.05%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 3.36%, Vedanta down by 2.63% and Bharti Airtel was down by 1.59% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) Director-General Rajan Mathews has said that hike in the price of mobile calls and internet rates by the telecom operators is beneficial for customers, will boost government revenue collection and help in generating jobs by improving financial health of the sector. From customers' perspective, he said these tariffs will enable operators to do required and necessary improvements in the telecom network which has been languishing because of financial stress in the sector. 

Mathews said ‘in the upcoming short period, we should begin to see improvement in customer experience and services.’ He pointed out that this is the first hike in the past five years in the country's telecom space that was facing tariff war, with voice calls becoming almost free in 2016 and steep 95 percent fall in data prices to Rs 11.78 per GB at present from Rs 269 per GB in 2014. He believed that this will help the government in its collection at a time when collections of the government are being challenged.

He further said the industry has been in doldrums and the hike in tariff will bring needed financial wherewithal to enable them to make investments. He noted that the government’s vision of Digital India requires over $100 billion worth of foreign investments into the country and the new tariff will help the sector in attracting foreign funds and help domestic banks in lending to the industry. He noted that this will help operators to begin to hire again.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11996.85, down by 51.35 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 11995.40 and 12068.60. There were 11 stocks advancing against 38 stocks declining, 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Auto up by 2.24%, TCS up by 1.36%, Titan Company up by 0.99%, Infosys up by 0.77% and Tech Mahindra was up by 0.65%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 7.01%, Yes Bank down by 4.84%, Tata Steel down by 4.00%, JSW Steel down by 3.24% and Grasim Industries was down by 2.83% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly lower, Nikkei 225 slipped 153.49 points or 0.65% to 23,376.01, KOSPI fell 7.37 points or 0.35% to 2,084.55, Hang Seng decreased 68.68 points or 0.26% to 26,376.04, Jakarta Composite lost 14.51 points or 0.24% to 6,115.55 and Straits Times was down by 14.04 points or 0.44% to 3,173.93.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite gained 1.74 points or 0.06% to 2,877.55 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 28.75 points or 0.25% to 11,531.58.