Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity Markets traded with volatility throughout the day and ended Friday’s session on flat note. Nifty ended at record closing high, while Sensex settled above crucial 41,650 levels. Markets started off with marginal gains, as traders took some support with DPIIT Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra expressing optimism that India will soon break into the top 50 in the World Bank's ease of doing business ranking. Some support also came as a private report indicated that it expects the Reserve Bank of India to cut the repo rate to 4.9% by March 2020 and 4.35% by September 2020 if global growth slows, and also said fiscal deficit is anticipated to slip to 3.8% of the GDP this year.

Benchmarks trimmed some of their gains but managed to keep their heads above water in afternoon session, as traders found solace with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that the Indian economy has the resilience to reverse the current slowdown and return to high growth trajectory and he exhorted corporates to take bold investment decisions to help push up GDP growth. However, key indices gave up gains to trade flat in late trade, as Fitch Ratings cut India's GDP growth forecast for 2019-20 fiscal year to 4.6 percent on the deterioration in business and consumer confidence. Adding some weakness, investments through participatory notes (P-notes) in the Indian capital market dropped to Rs 69,670 crore at the end of November. The total value of investments via P-notes in the Indian markets (including equity, debt, and derivatives) declined by Rs 7,103 crore to Rs 69,670 crore by the end of November from Rs 76,773 crore at October-end.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly higher on Friday after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that a preliminary trade deal with China was ready for signing in early January. European markets were trading mostly in red amid fresh concerns over a no-deal Brexit. Back home, aviation stocks were in focus with rating agency ICRA’s report that domestic passenger traffic growth is expected to decline to a six-year low of 4.5 percent in the current fiscal and the financial health of the aviation industry will continue to deteriorate. Tourism sector was in focus with NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant’s statement that the tourism industry in India should target $50 billion revenues by 2022, as the sector has immense multiplier impact in the economy and is one of the biggest drivers of growth and employment.

The BSE Sensex ended at 41664.23, down by 9.69 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 41636.11 and 41809.96. There were 13 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended mixed; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.10%, while Small cap index was down by 0.07%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.02%, PSU up by 0.92%, Telecom up by 0.80%, Realty up by 0.76% and Metal up by 0.74%, while Healthcare down by 0.51%, Auto down by 0.47%, Energy down by 0.30%, Capital Goods down by 0.25% and Oil & Gas down by 0.11% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.68%, SBI up by 2.82%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.59%, Yes Bank up by 1.40% and ICICI Bank up by 1.23%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Tata Motors - DVR down by 3.42%, Vedanta down by 3.05%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.99%, Tata Motors down by 1.98% and ITC down by 1.04% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, expressing optimism over India’s ranking in ease of doing business, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra has said that the country will soon break into the top 50 in the World Bank's (WB) ease of doing business ranking. Besides, India jumped 14 places to the 63rd position in the WB's ease of doing business ranking released in October. India was ranked 142nd among 190 nations when Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014.

He also said a district-wise ease of doing business plan is slowly evolving in which the four local bodies will partake in improving the business climate and ease of living, along with the centre and the state government. He sounded caution that once India does that, it will be in the league of advanced industrialised countries, where any incremental progress will require even stronger reform measures from the government.

Mohapatra further said that from next year onwards, the World Bank Ease of Doing Business (EODB) rankings will include two more cities of Bengaluru and Kolkata apart from the existing cities of Delhi and Mumbai. Meanwhile, in its 'Doing Business' 2020 report, the World Bank had commended the reform efforts undertaken by the country ‘given the size of India's economy’.

The CNX Nifty ended at 12267.45, up by 7.75 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 12252.75 and 12293.90. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Titan Co up by 3.51%, Tata Steel up by 3.40%, UPL up by 3.07%, SBI up by 2.79% and Nestle up by 2.06%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Vedanta down by 2.71%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.04%, Tata Motors down by 1.40%, Eicher Motors down by 1.37% and ITC down by 1.19% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 3.08 points or 0.04% to 7,570.74 and France’s CAC decreased 3.47 points or 0.06% to 5,968.81, while Germany’s DAX increased 6.04 points or 0.05% to 13,218.00.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Friday after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that a preliminary trade deal with China was ready for signing in early January. Mnuchin said the documentation was completely finished and just undergoing a technical ‘scrub’, though Beijing has so far dodged all details of the deal. China on Thursday unveiled a new list of import tariff exemptions for six chemical and oil products from the United States too supported the market sentiment. Chinese shares posted their third straight weekly gain on expectations of a growth recovery and a potential thawing in Sino-US trade relations ahead of the 2020 US presidential election. Meanwhile, Japanese shares ended lower on profit taking ahead of the year-end holiday after Japanese shares hit a 14-month high earlier this week on news of the tentative trade deal being finalised between Washington and Beijing.