Weak trade prevails in afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued their weak trade in the afternoon session, on account of selling by investors in the blue-chip counters amid subdued cues from the global front. Sentiment remain dampened 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%. Traders even overlooked Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the government is open to further reforms for making India a more attractive investment destination. She also said the government has taken various steps, including reduction of corporate tax. On the sectoral front, steel sector remained in focus after Moody's Investors Service said that India's steel demand will slow down on account of weak auto and manufacturing order, but will remain strongest in Asia. It also said India will remain the world's second-largest steel producer behind China after having overtaken Japan in 2018. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly lower, after U.S. President Donald Trump stunned markets by imposing tariffs on imports from Brazil and Argentina, rekindling fears over global trade tensions, while weak U.S. factory data added to the investor gloom. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40615.81, down by 186.36 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 40576.83 and 40885.03. There were 7 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.87%, while Small cap index was down by 0.71%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.63%, IT up by 0.47% and Realty was up by 0.38%, while Telecom down by 3.15%, Metal down by 2.54%, Basic Materials down by 1.57%, Industrials down by 1.42% and Capital Goods was down by 1.00% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto up by 2.02%, TCS up by 1.14%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.63%, Infosys up by 0.59% and Tech Mahindra was up by 0.59%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 5.07%, Tata Steel down by 4.10%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 4.01%, Vedanta down by 2.77% and Tata Motors was down by 1.93% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said that India’s steel sector is seeing improvement in the recent past after a slowdown. He also said that the country has been consistently increasing domestic production of steel and is a net exporter in the current financial year (FY20). He noted that steel is a deregulated sector where market forces and commercial considerations decide construction and location of new steel plants.

Pradhan has indicated that the import of steel has increased marginally in the last three years from 7.23 million tonnes in 2016-17 to 7.83 million tonnes in 2018-19. He also said that anti-dumping duties have been imposed on various grades of steel which were dumped into the country in order to counter import of cheap steel. He added that import of steel grades which are not manufactured in adequate quantity in the country is essential for supporting manufacturing sector.

The minister further said the production of iron ore in the country is sufficient to meet the current demand and consumption by the domestic industry. He noted that the supply of iron ore during last year i.e. 2018-19 was 207.7 MT against its demand of 189 MT. He also stated that the entire demand of coking coal is not met from domestic production as its supply is limited and thus no option is left but to resort to import of coking coal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11978.65, down by 69.55 points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 11969.30 and 12068.60. There were 11 stocks advancing against 39 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Auto up by 2.22%, TCS up by 1.27%, Titan Company up by 0.74%, Infosys up by 0.67% and Tech Mahindra was up by 0.54%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 7.31%, Yes Bank down by 4.84%, Tata Steel down by 4.10%, JSW Steel down by 3.62% and Adani Ports &Special was down by 3.52% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 149.69 points or 0.64% to 23,379.81, Hang Seng decreased 65.73 points or 0.25% to 26,378.99, Straits Times trembled 18.70 points or 0.59% to 3,169.27, Jakarta Composite lost 13.39 points or 0.22% to 6,116.67 and KOSPI was down by 7.85 points or 0.38% to 2,084.07.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite gained 2.94 points or 0.1% to 2,878.75 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 28.75 points or 0.25% to 11,531.58.