Benchmarks trade lower on last day of Calendar Year 2019

Indian equity benchmarks made a cautious start and are trading lower in early deals as traders remained concern on private report that the government might breach the fiscal deficit target this financial year amid drop in the revenue mobilisation and expected additional expenditure by the government. Traders took note of a report that Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said the country’s exports are expected to touch $330-340 billion during the ongoing fiscal on account of uncertain global situation and rising protectionism. During April-November, 2019-20, exports dipped by about 2 per cent to $212 billion. FIEO President Sharad Kumar Saraf said the global situation is becoming extremely challenging as rising protectionism is leading to uncertainty in global trade which will have adverse impact on it.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading lower at this point of time on Tuesday on the last trading day of 2019, echoing falls on Wall Street. The US markets ended lower on Monday as investors booked profits from gains made this month after the United States and China reached a trade deal.

Back home, Renewable energy sector stocks remained in focus on report that ratings agency ICRA revised its outlook for India’s renewable energy sector from stable to negative amid delays in payments from discoms and execution of projects. In scrip specific developments, PTC India Financial services gained on receiving sanction for term loan of Rs 500 crore and Kalpataru Power Transmission surged on securing new orders worth Rs 979 crore.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 41420.69, down by 137.31 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 41418.43 and 41607.49. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining, 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.04%, while Small cap index was up by 0.28%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 0.38%, Capital Goods up by 0.27%, Industrials up by 0.27%, Utilities up by 0.25% and Realty was up by 0.15%, while IT down by 0.57%, TECK down by 0.47%, Bankex down by 0.38%, Auto down by 0.34% and Consumer Discretionary was down by 0.23% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 0.46%, Sun Pharma Industries up by 0.40%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.37%, Axis Bank up by 0.15% and Power Grid Corporation was up by 0.13%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.90%, Indusind Bank down by 0.87%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.64%, Infosys down by 0.59% and ICICI Bank was down by 0.55% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President Sharad Kumar Saraf said that the India’s exports are expected to touch $330-340 billion during the current financial year (FY20) due to uncertain global situation and rising protectionism. During April-November, 2019-20, exports dipped by about 2 per cent to $212 billion. He mentioned that the global situation is becoming extremely challenging as rising protectionism is leading to uncertainty in global trade which will have adverse impact on it.

He said despite having a moderate share in global trade, India’s exports have always followed the trend in global imports. Therefore, when global imports are declining, India’s exports are also likely to take a hit. He added that the infrastructure improvement and initiatives on the logistics front will further improve competitiveness of exports. Moreover, he said ‘If the global situation improves, which is likely in the first half of 2020, we may look for 15 per cent growth in exports during the next financial year.’

Besides, he said exports have to be aligned with changing import patterns of the global economy. About 50 per cent of the global imports is accounted by electrical and electronics products, automobiles, machinery, petroleum products and plastic products. Meanwhile, he mentioned ‘unfortunately, the share of such products in our exports is less than 33 per cent despite having petroleum products accounting for roughly half of it. Our global share in such products is much less than 1 per cent.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 12214.20, down by 41.65 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 12213.30 and 12247.10. There were 13 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index, while 2 stocks remains unchanged on the index on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 1.29%, Coal India up by 1.07%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 0.75%, Britannia Industries up by 0.52% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.39%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.98%, Eicher Motors down by 0.94%, Wipro down by 0.92%, Indusind Bank down by 0.88% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.82% were the top losers.

All Asian markets are trading lower; Straits Times trembled 2.97 points or 0.09% to 3,219.47, Taiwan Weighted dropped 32.22 points or 0.27% to 12,021.15, Shanghai Composite declined 1.76 points or 0.06% to 3,038.26 and Hang Seng was down by129.64 points or 0.46% to 28,189.75.