Bourses trade near day’s low points

Extending their losses, Indian equity benchmarks were traded near their intraday low points in late afternoon deals, on the back of weak European markets.  Traders remained anxious as global rating agency, Fitch Ratings said that India's non-banking financial companies will look increasingly to offshore financing as local funding conditions may remain under pressure. The rating agency expects offshore access to be restricted to larger entities with stronger credit fundamentals. The street also took a note of Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur’s statement that the recent spike in retail inflation is mainly due to high food prices and the government is taking steps to moderate the volatility in prices.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, as Finland's industrial production fell for the second straight month in October. The figures from Statistics Finland showed that industrial production dropped by a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent month-on-month in October, following a 0.2 percent fall in September. Asian markets were also trading in red, after China's consumer price inflation accelerated to the highest since early 2012 in November as disruption to pork supply pushed up food inflation. Consumer price inflation rose more-than-expected to 4.5 percent in November from 3.8 percent in October.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40249.97, down by 237.46 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 40230.96 and 40588.81. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.05%, while Small cap index was down by 1.03%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities down by 1.82%, Power down by 1.59%, PSU down by 1.41%, Oil & Gas down by 1.35% and IT down by 1.28%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 1.02%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.69%, HDFC Bank up by 0.60%, ICICI Bank up by 0.47% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.39%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 9.07%, TCS down by 2.51%, Indusind Bank down by 2.46%, NTPC down by 2.39% and ITC down by 2.20% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Indian automobile industry sales remained weak in the month of November 2019, as the industry body, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) in its latest report showed that domestic passenger vehicle sales fell marginally by 0.84 per cent to 2,63,773 units in November from 2,66,000 units in the year-ago period.

Domestic car sales also declined 10.83 per cent to 1,60,306 units in the reported month as against 1,79,783 units in November 2018, while motorcycle sales in November fell 14.87 per cent to 8,93,538 units as against 10,49,651 units a year earlier. Total two-wheeler sales in November were down by 14.27 per cent to 14,10,939 units compared to 16,45,783 units in the year-ago month.

According to the SIAM data report, sales of commercial vehicles decreased by 14.98 per cent to 61,907 units in November 2019. Further, vehicle sales across categories registered a decline of 12.05 per cent to 17,92,415 units from 20,38,007 units in November 2018.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11850.70, down by 86.80 points or 0.73% after trading in a range of 11850.00 and 11953.20. There were 13 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Eicher Motors up by 1.36%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.14%, Cipla up by 0.87%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.71% and UPL up by 0.59%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 9.78%, Zee Entertainment down by 4.50%, GAIL India down by 4.00%, JSW Steel down by 2.70% and BPCL down by 2.61% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 41.39 points or 0.16% to 26,453.34, Taiwan Weighted dropped 32.93 points or 0.28% to 11,627.84, Nikkei 225 slipped 20.51 points or 0.09% to 23,410.19 and Jakarta Composite was down by 4.36 points or 0.07% to 6,189.43. On the flip side, Straits Times advanced 0.40 points or 0.01% to 3,180.22, Shanghai Composite gained 1.10 points or 0.04% to 2,915.58 and KOSPI was up by 9.35 points or 0.45% to 2,098.00.

All European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 lost 82.60 points or 1.14% to 7,151.30, France’s CAC fell 48.35 points or 0.83% to 5,788.90 and Germany’s DAX was down by 160.90 points or 1.23% to 12,944.71.