Local equities continue sluggish trade; M&M, Asian Paints drag

Local equity benchmarks continued their sluggish trade in morning session, with Sensex and Nifty falling more than 150 and 35 points, respectively. Traders were cautious amid raising concerns for the Indian economy, consumers have trimmed personal spendings and investments and the consumer confidence has dropped in the month of January. Investors also remained on sidelines with a private report that surging inflation and slowing growth are raising serious concerns about the future growth prospects of the economy and as a remedial measure the government should resolve supply side hurdles and ensure more stringent governance norms. Investors were on the back foot as International Monetary Fund (IMF) trimmed its India growth forecast estimate to just 4.8% for FY20 from 6.1% projected in October 2019, citing stress in the country’s shadow-banking sector as well as weak rural income growth. However, further losses remain restricted with report that India was among the top 10 recipients of Foreign Direct Investment in 2019, attracting $49 billion in inflows, a 16% increase from the previous year, driving the FDI growth in South Asia.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red, as a ripple of risk aversion swept markets, though market participants could find no obvious trigger for the move. Back on the domestic turf, in scrip specific development, SREI Infrastructure Finance surged on planning to raise Rs 3,000 crore through various ways. However, Hindustan Zinc declined on reporting 27% fall in Q3FY20 net profit at Rs 1620 crore as compared to Rs 2211 crore for the same quarter in the previous year.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 41,361.51, down by 167.40 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 41,301.63 and 41,532.59. There were 8 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index slipped 0.16%, while Small cap index was up by 0.01%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.12%, Energy up by 0.09%, Utilities up by 0.06% and TECK was up by 0.03%, while Realty down by 1.09%, Auto down by 0.92%, Consumer Disc down by 0.72%, Consumer Durables down by 0.60% and FMCG was down by 0.46% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 0.94%, NTPC up by 0.68%, ICICI Bank up by 0.22%, Reliance Industries up by 0.20% and Tech Mahindra was up by 0.17%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.42%, Asian Paints down by 1.91%, Tata Steel down by 1.57%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.28% and Kotak Mahindra Bank was down by 1.23% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in its latest data has said that domestic air passenger traffic grew by just 3.74 percent to 14.41 crore in 2019 as compared to 13.89 crore in 2018, largely on account of the closure of Jet Airways. The domestic air passenger traffic grew by 18.6 percent in 2018.

The domestic air passenger traffic in December 2019 increased by 2.56 percent to 1.30 crore compared to the same month in 2018. In comparison, the growth in domestic traffic in November 2019 was 11.18 percent. The passenger load factors of all major airlines - Air India, SpiceJet, GoAir, IndiGo, AirAsia India and Vistara - declined in December 2019 as compared to November 2019.

IndiGo maintained its lead position with 47.5 percent share of the domestic passenger market in December 2019. SpiceJet's market share increased from 16.1 percent in November to 16.5 percent in December, giving it the number two spot. The market share of Air India, GoAir, AirAsia India and Vistara was 11.9 percent, 10.2 percent, 7 percent and 6.1 percent respectively last month.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 12185.10, down by 39.45 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 12162.45 and 12230.05. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Infratel up by 6.02%, Zee Entertainment up by 2.68%, Coal India up by 1.64%, NTPC up by 0.68% and GAIL India was up by 0.55%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.27%, Asian Paints down by 2.05%, Tata Steel down by 1.64%, Indian Oil Corporation down by 1.57% and UPL was down by 1.46% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red, Hang Seng decreased 648.43 points or 2.25% to 28,147.48, Nikkei 225 slipped 209.32 points or 0.87% to 23,874.19, Straits Times trembled 38.73 points or 1.18% to 3,241.36, Shanghai Composite declined 32.23 points or 1.04% to 3,063.56 and KOSPI fell 18.09 points or 0.8% to 2,244.55. On the other hand, Jakarta Composite was up by 1.79 points or 0.03% to 6,246.83.