Benchmarks continue to trade in red zone

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in red in the early noon session on account of selling in realty and PSU stocks. Realty stocks witnessed selling pressure as sentiments got a hit after  Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), in its fifth bi-monthly monetary policy review of 2019-20, has kept policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 5.15%. Further, profit booking in consumer durables, auto and industrials stocks also dragged down the domestic benchmarks. Most of the sectoral indices were trading in negative territory with realty as top losing index trading down by over 1.62%. Investors also seemed to be cautious as industry body Ficci expressed disappointment at the RBI’s decision to keep interest rates unchanged, and said there is a need for continued action on the policy rate front to boost growth.

Global cues remained supportive with most of the Asian markets, following positive cues from Wall Street overnight. However, gains were limited with conflicting signals from Washington and Beijing prolonged uncertainty about a trade deal. Back home, the NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were trading below their psychological 12,000 and 40,800 levels respectively. The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2,215 stocks traded, 1,307 stocks declined, while 777 stocks advanced on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40714.39, down by 65.20 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 40697.70 and 40952.13. There were 11 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.47%, while Small cap index was down by 0.35%.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 0.51% and Healthcare was up by 0.08%, while Realty down by 1.62%, PSU down by 1.43%, Consumer Durables down by 0.69%, Auto down by 0.64 and Industrials was down by 0.53% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 1.56%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.17%, HDFC Bank up by 1.07%, Tata Steel up by 0.96% and HCL Technologies was up by 0.53%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 7.00%, SBI down by 3.45%, HDFC down by 1.43%, ONGC down by 1.40% and Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 1.33% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said that India's domestic air passenger volume -- measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), increased by 3.6 percent in October 2019 but the expansion was slower as compared to the year-ago period, reflecting the general economic slowdown and disruptive impact of the collapse of Jet Airways earlier in the year. It said growth in India lags the robust 2018 outcomes.

According to the report, globally, passenger demand grew 3.4 percent in October compared to the same month last year. This was a modest slowdown from 3.9 percent growth recorded in September, owing to softer traffic performance in domestic markets. October capacity (Available Seat Kilometers or ASKs) increased by 2.2 percent and load factor climbed 0.9 percentage point to 82 percent, which was a record for October.

As per the IATA, international RPK growth was unchanged from last month as faster expansion recorded by the Middle Eastern carriers broadly offset a slowdown in Europe and Latin America. By contrast, growth in domestic RPKs softened this month largely on the back of weaker China and US market outcomes. Traffic growth continues to be depressed compared to historical long-term growth levels, reflecting continued moderating.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11982.95, down by 35.45 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 11982.60 and 12057.05. There were 13 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 4.59%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 2.21%, Asian Paints up by 1.35%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.16% and HDFC Bank was up by 0.96%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 7.57%, Zee Entertainment down by 3.93%, SBI down by 3.51%, HDFC down by 1.69% and GAIL India was down by 1.65% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Nikkei 225 surged 67.86 points or 0.29% to 23,367.95, Hang Seng increased 146.93 points or 0.56% to 26,363.97, Jakarta Composite soared 10.82 points or 0.18% to 6,162.94, Shanghai Composite gained 2.55 points or 0.09% to 2,902.02, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 14.99 points or 0.13% to 11,609.64 and KOSPI was up by 16.21 points or 0.79% to 2,076.95. On the flip side, Straits Times was down by 0.10 points to 3,174.09.