Markets continue to trade weak in early noon deals

Pressurized by feeble global cues, markets continued their weak trade in early noon session as market-participants continued to book profits in absence of any positive trigger. Stocks from bankex, IT and TECK counters were trading lower, while realty, consumer durables and metal counters were supporting the markets. Sentiments remained lackluster with a report stating that retail inflation, which accelerated to 7.35 per cent in December and could breach 8 per cent in January, may force the Reserve Bank of India to hold rates in the monetary policy review next month. Furthermore, weakness in domestic currency and foreign fund outflows too weighed on the investors sentiments. Markets failed to draw any sense of relief from report that new FICCI President Sangita Reddy has urged the government not to worry too much about the fiscal deficit and try to pump the economy by increasing investments to arrest slowdown and accelerate growth.

On global front, Asian markets were trading lower after reports that despite the signing of the trade deal, tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese goods are likely to remain in place until after the US presidential election in November. Closer home, on sectoral front, realty stocks edged higher on expectations of strong earnings in the second half of the financial year 2019-20.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 41758.42, down by 194.21 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 41718.15 and 41969.86. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.30%, while Small cap index was up by 0.60%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.26%, Consumer Durables up by 0.84%, Metal up by 0.47%, Consumer Discretionary up by 0.43% and Capital Goods was up by 0.43%, while Bankex down by 0.91%, IT down by 0.58%, TECK down by 0.55%, PSU down by 0.25% and FMCG was down by 0.21% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hero MotoCorp up by 1.30%, Titan Company up by 1.28%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.53%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.51% and Larsen & Toubro was up by 0.46%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 4.26%, Infosys down by 1.02%, SBI down by 0.95%, ICICI Bank down by 0.90% and Ultratech Cement was down by 0.88% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, a joint survey carried out by Knight Frank-FICCI-Naredco has stated that India’s real estate sector sentiments have shown improvement in Q3 (October-December) of FY20 and turned positive after two quarters on account of several measures taken by the government and the RBI to boost demand. It indicated that after staying in negative zone (below 50 mark) for two consecutive quarters, the sentiments of real estate stakeholders in India was in optimistic zone at 53 in Q3FY20, up from 42 in the previous quarter. It added that this optimism is significant in the wake of the continued downslide in India's overall economic performance.

According to the survey, the future sentiment score that had gone in the red for the first time in the preceding July-September 2019 quarter at 49, also bounced back to 59 in Q4 2019. A score over 50 signifies 'optimism' in sentiments, a score of 50 means the sentiment is 'same' or 'neutral', while a score below 50 shows 'pessimism’. Besides, it stated that though the sentiment is in optimistic zone now, the qualitative outlook of stakeholders remains cautious, with a majority of them opining that the sector will remain at the same levels as previously even while it will not go down further in the next six months.

It further stated that even while the sector is working towards finding its balance, especially in the residential segment, steps by the government have kept the sector stable in 2019. It noted that the sector's optimism is far pronounced for the office sector, which has grown from strength to strength in the past few years, reaching historic highs in 2019. It added that in the next 8-10 quarters, if the office, other commercial including retail, warehouse and logistics and the residential sector continue to show positive growth, despite the pace of growth of Indian economy.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 12301.40, down by 60.90 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 12290.00 and 12350.30. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Yes Bank up by 2.98%, Titan Company up by 1.30%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.09%, Zee Entertainment up by 0.91% and Mahindra & Mahindra was up by 0.61%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 4.35%, Wipro down by 3.81%, BPCL down by 1.35%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 1.35% and UPL was down by 1.28% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading lower, KOSPI fell 10.49 points or 0.47% to 2,228.39, Hang Seng decreased 182.33 points or 0.63% to 28,702.81, Straits Times trembled 14.53 points or 0.44% to 3,256.01, Nikkei 225 slipped 111.97 points or 0.47% to 23,913.20, Jakarta Composite lost 24.21 points or 0.38% to 6,301.20, Taiwan Weighted dropped 87.93 points or 0.72% to 12,091.88 and Shanghai Composite was down by 22.19 points or 0.71% to 3,084.63.