Bourses manage to keep their heads above water in afternoon deals

Indian equity benchmarks managed to keep their heads above water in afternoon session, on the back of buying by funds and retail investors. Traders were taking support from DPIIT Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra expressed optimism that India will soon break into the top 50 in the World Bank's ease of doing business ranking. However, further up move got restricted as anxiety remained among the local traders with Union Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar’s statement that the dream of India becoming a 5 trillion dollar economy cannot be achieved if the villages in the country are ignored. In the currency front, rupee dropped by 15 paise to 71.18 per dollar in early trade amid gains in the US currency in global markets. On the sectoral front, 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.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, as trade thinned in the run-up to Christmas and investors seemed content to digest the chunky gains already made so far this month. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 41731.17, up by 57.25 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 41656.14 and 41809.96. There were 18 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.36%, while Small cap index was up by 0.25%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.90%, PSU up by 1.06%, Utilities up by 0.88%, Consumer Durables up by 0.76% and Metal was up by 0.75%, while IT down by 0.10% and FMCG was down by 0.05% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Yes Bank up by 6.31%, SBI up by 2.22%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.13%, Tata Steel up by 1.56% and Bharti Airtel was up by 1.45%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.39%, HDFC down by 0.92%, ITC down by 0.55%, TCS down by 0.36% and Vedanta was down by 0.33% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has said 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. He noted that the tourism sector can be one of the biggest drivers of India's economic growth as higher visitor numbers spur employment opportunities. He added that India's total earning from tourism was about $28.6 billion in 2018.

He stated that in terms of revenue from international tourists, India has only 1.97 percent share of the total global earnings. In terms of tourist arrivals (number of people), it is only 1.2 percent which is very marginal for a huge country like India. Therefore, he said 'we need to take it up to 3.5 percent from 1.2 percent so that we reach the tourism revenue target of $50 billion by 2022.' 

On the policy front, Kant said that the government has supported the tourism sector and has cut goods and services tax (GST) rates on hotel room tariffs. The GST rate on hotel rooms with tariffs of up to Rs 7,500 per night has been cut to 12 percent from the existing 18 percent. Similarly, the tax on room tariff of above Rs 7,500 has been slashed to 18 percent from the existing 28 percent. There will be no GST on room tariffs of below Rs 1,000 per night. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 12285.15, up by 25.45 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 12252.75 and 12293.90. There were 37 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Yes Bank up by 6.51%, Bharti Infratel up by 3.59%, Zee Entertainment up by 2.61%, SBI up by 2.21% and Bharti Airtel was up by 2.01%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.30%, HDFC down by 0.90%, ITC down by 0.55%, TCS down by 0.47% and Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 0.44% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted dropped 59.82 points or 0.5% to 11,959.08, Nikkei 225 slipped 48.22 points or 0.2% to 23,816.63, Jakarta Composite lost 12.45 points or 0.2% to 6,237.48, Shanghai Composite declined 5.60 points or 0.19% to 3,011.47 and Straits Times was down by 3.29 points or 0.1% to 3,204.13.

On the flip side, Hang Seng increased 1.71 points or 0.01% to 27,802.20 and KOSPI was up by 7.62 points or 0.35% to 2,204.18.