Bourses turn negative in late noon deals

Erasing all of their gains, Indian equity bourses turned negative in late afternoon deals, on account of weak cues from European markets. The street got anxious, after Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur informed that as many as 52,720 Integrated GST (IGST) refund claims are pending for more than one year. He said the reasons for this pendency include non-submission of required documents by the applicants. However, down side remained capped, with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the government has carried out a number of reforms in various sectors and it is a continuous process for improvement in the economy. He said some of the reforms were by way of amendments in various acts such as the Finance (Amendment) Bills, the Special Economic Zones (Amendment) Bill, amendments in the Goods and Services Tax Act and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, after the UK economy stagnated in October as Brexit uncertainties and upcoming election weighed on most of the sectors. The data from the Office for National Statistics showed that gross domestic product remained unchanged in October from September, when it was down 0.1 percent. However, Asian markets were trading in green, as the Singapore economy is likely to expand slightly more than previously projected in 2019. The survey of professional forecasters from Monetary Authority of Singapore, showed that Gross domestic product is forecast to grow 0.7 percent this year, instead of 0.6 percent projected in the previous survey.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40226.54, down by 13.34 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 40135.37 and 40423.14. There were 13 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.01%, while Small cap index was down by 0.31%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 1.05%, IT up by 0.72%, TECK up by 0.57%, Power up by 0.56% and Oil & Gas up by 0.34%, while Capital Goods down by 1.19%, Metal down by 1.09%, Basic Materials down by 0.84%, Industrials down by 0.76% and Telecom down by 0.49% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 2.46%, TCS up by 1.36%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.27%, Asian Paints up by 1.07% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.93%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 18.30%, Vedanta down by 2.70%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 2.06%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.62% and Larsen & Toubro down by 1.49% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to enhance the ease of doing business, Secretary, Union Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE), Anand Kumar has said that the government is committed to managing curtailments in the renewable energy sector. He also noted that the Ministry is working with farmers and Commercial & Industrial (C&I) consumers to embed them into the renewables value chain as direct stakeholders.

Kumar further underlined the facts of the sector including India’s current capacity at 83GW and additional 70 GW capacity which is under fruition. He also said that the Government of India is confident of meeting its target of 175GW renewable energy capacity by 2022 and increasing it to 450GW over time.

Further, Anand Kumar expressed need for catalysing private investment and expand India’s clean energy market through innovative risk mitigation and aggregation instruments. Besides, he said that the additional investments in renewable up to year 2022 would be about $80 billion at today’s prices and an investment of around $300 billion would be required up to 2030.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11848.30, down by 8.50 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 11832.30 and 11907.30. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were GAIL India up by 5.09%, Zee Entertainment up by 2.77%, NTPC up by 2.55%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.48% and Bajaj Finserv up by 1.17%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 17.21%, Vedanta down by 2.59%, Hindalco down by 1.76%, BPCL down by 1.74% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.62% were the top losers.

Asian market were mostly trading in green; Hang Seng increased 198.17 points or 0.75% to 26,634.79, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 72.93 points or 0.63% to 11,700.77, Straits Times advanced 20.30 points or 0.64% to 3,183.19, KOSPI rose 7.62 points or 0.36% to 2,105.62 and Shanghai Composite gained 5.14 points or 0.18% to 2,922.46. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite lost 0.31 points or 0.01% to 6,183.20 and Nikkei 225 was down by 18.33 points or 0.08% to 23,391.86.

All European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 lost 2.54 points or 0.04% to 7,211.22, France’s CAC fell 13.94 points or 0.24% to 5,834.09 and Germany’s DAX was down by 1.17 points or 0.01% to 13,069.55.