Benchmarks hold head above water in early noon session

Indian equity benchmarks trimmed their gains to trade near neutral line but managed to keep their head above water in early noon session. Buying in bluechips stocks such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries and Hero MotoCorp provided some support to the domestic benchmarks. Broader indices, BSE Mid cap and Small cap are also showing positive trend. On the sectoral front, Information Technology companies stocks trading lower despite India attracted tech investments worth $9.36 billion last year, a 95 percent increase compared with the previous year, according to the data compiled by a global database company. The Indian investment figures coincided with record investment numbers registered by the UK in 2019, at $13.2 billion, behind the US ($116 billion) and China ($33.5 billion). Farm sector remained in limelight with government think-tank NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand’s statement that farm sector growth is likely to be higher at 3.1 per cent in the current fiscal compared with 2.9 per cent in 2018-19.Meanwhile, The government may impose anti-dumping duty on a certain variety of yarn from China, Indonesia, and Vietnam with a view to guard domestic players from cheap imports.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as investor sentiment was boosted by data showing that China's economy grew in line with expectations. Back Home, in scrip specific development shares of Piramal Enterprises surged on raising Rs 150 crore via NCDs and Srikalahasthi Pipes gained on starting commercial operations of 1st phase of Ferro Alloys unit.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 41980.91, up by 48.35 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 41850.29 and 42063.93. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gain 0.61%, while Small cap index was up by 0.50%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 1.26%, Auto up by 0.72%, Basic Materials up by 0.66%, Telecom up by 0.55% and Healthcare was up by 0.53%, while Bankex down by 0.51%, PSU down by 0.37% and IT was down by 0.07% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.84%, Reliance Industries up by 1.92%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.25%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.99% and Bajaj Auto was up by 0.62%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 1.98%, SBI down by 0.87%, HDFC Bank down by 0.86%, HDFC down by 0.57% and NTPC was down by 0.41% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest data has showed that banks credit rose by 7.57 percent to Rs 100.44 lakh crore, while deposits grew by 9.77 percent to Rs 132.10 lakh crore in the fortnight to January 2. In the similar fortnight last year, deposits were at Rs 120.33 lakh crore and advances stood at Rs 93.37 lakh crore.

In the previous fortnight ended December 20, 2019, credit had increased by 7.10 per cent to Rs 99.47 lakh crore and deposits grew by 10.09 percent to Rs 130.08 lakh crore. On a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, banks' credit growth slowed to 7.2 percent to Rs 86.73 lakh crore in November 2019 from 13.8 percent to Rs 80.93 lakh crore in the year-ago period.

For the industry, loan growth fell to 2.4 percent at Rs 27.72 lakh crore in November from 4 percent in the corresponding month of 2018. Loans to agriculture and allied activities slowed to 6.5 percent in November 2019 from 7.7 percent in November 2018. Advances to the services sector decelerated sharply to 4.8 percent from 28.1 percent last year. Personal loans grew at a marginally lower rate of 16.4 percent in November 2019 as compared with 17.2 percent in November 2018.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 12358.40, up by 2.90 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 12321.40 and 12385.45. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.82%, Reliance Industries up by 1.94%, Grasim Industries up by 1.22%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.01% and Hero MotoCorp was up by 1.01%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 8.46%, Yes Bank down by 2.88%, Indusind Bank down by 2.18%, GAIL India down by 1.98% and Coal India was down by 1.17% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Hang Seng decreased 19.51 points or 0.07% to 28,863.53, Jakarta Composite lost 10.39 points or 0.17% to 6,275.66, Straits Times trembled 4.97 points or 0.15% to 3,273.03 and Shanghai Composite declined by 3.21 points or 0.1% to 3,070.87. On the flip side, KOSPI rose 4.83 points or 0.21% to 2,252.88, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 23.36 points or 0.19% to 12,090.29 and Nikkei 225 was up by 104.71 points or 0.44% to 24,037.84.