Benchmarks trade higher with modest gains in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks, continuing their record-run of previous session, made positive start with indices scaling new all-time highs on Wednesday. Markets were trading higher with modest gains in early deals ahead of the crucial goods and services tax (GST) Council meet. The Council is expected to review the taxation structure for shoring up the revenue as lower-than-expected collections has led to a delay in compensation payment to states. Sentiments got some support as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that India is impacted to some extent by the global economic slowdown but expressed confidence that the country will come out of the difficult situation within a short time. Besides, as per a private report, the government is likely to trim personal income tax rates and cut the tax on long-term capital gains from equity investments in its next budget, in a bid to spur economic growth. However, upside remained capped with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist Gita Gopinath’s statement that IMF will revise estimates for India’s economic growth in January, which will be a significant downward cut over the previous estimate. IMF currently projects India to grow at 6.1% in 2019 and 7% in 2020.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly lower amid renewed concerns about Brexit following reports that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is taking a hard line on Britain's transition period for leaving the European Union. Back home, on the sectoral front, telecom stocks were in focus as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) deferred by a year a plan to abolish interconnection usage fees (IUC) that operators pay each other for calls made from one network to another. In scrip specific development, TCS was trading higher as it has been selected by Petco, America's leading pet specialty retailer, to deploy TCS Optumera, an Al-powered merchandise optimization suite.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 41407.65, up by 55.48 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 41374.94 and 41480.91. There were 23 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.08%, while Small cap index was up by 0.33%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.90%, TECK up by 0.66%, Realty up by 0.59%, Metal up by 0.50% and Healthcare was up by 0.36%, while Telecom down by 0.56%, FMCG down by 0.30%, PSU down by 0.21%, Oil & Gas down by 0.20% and Bankex was down by 0.10% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tech Mahindra up by 1.72%, Tata Steel up by 1.15%, TCS up by 0.96%, Tata Motors up by 0.83% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.83%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.55%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.81%, Axis Bank down by 0.68%, ONGC down by 0.44% and ICICI Bank down by 0.37% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, acknowledging India is impacted to some extent by the global economic slowdown, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has expressed confidence that the country will come out of the difficult situation within a short time. He said currently the world over, there is a talk of a global economic slowdown. Besides, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed for the sixth consecutive quarter in the July-September quarter to 4.5% as manufacturing slumped on low domestic consumption.

He said ‘I also accept that there is global economic slowdown and India is also impacted by it to some extent. But I can say with full confidence that India will come out of this difficult situation in only few months' time’. He added that this was not a matter of big concern for India because the government has taken several major steps and announced economic packages to boost economic growth. He also said ‘We can face and tackle the global economic slowdown only by increasing consumer demand’, and the government has taken several structural and procedural reforms whose impact is now visible.

Singh further said despite the global economic recession, India has not been impacted because as compared to other countries, India's consumer demand is comparatively better and it will definitely come out of this difficult situation. He noted that this is not the first time that India is getting affected by the global economic slowdown. He outlined the major measures and initiatives taken by the government to provide basic needs to people of India, including providing homes, building toilets to end open defecation, electricity, cooking gas and focusing on infrastructure development.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 12194.60, up by 29.60 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 12167.95 and 12199.05. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 1.73%, Tata Motors up by 1.66%, TCS up by 1.40%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.29% and Wipro up by 1.21%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.23%, GAIL India down by 1.00%, Yes Bank down by 0.74%, UPL down by 0.47% and Ultratech Cement down by 0.43% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 96.88 points or 0.4% to 23,969.24, Hang Seng decreased 20.92 points or 0.08% to 27,822.79, Taiwan Weighted dropped 8.95 points or 0.07% to 12,088.06, Shanghai Composite declined 2.36 points or 0.08% to 3,020.06 and KOSPI fell 1.85 points or 0.08% to 2,193.83. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite soared 5.71 points or 0.09% to 6,250.06 and Straits Times was up by 9.23 points or 0.29% to 3,210.03.