Weakness persists over Dalal Street

Weakness persisted over the Dalal Street in late afternoon session, despite firm opening of European markets. Market participants were cautious, as a UN study report stated that economic inequality has risen to historic high levels across various countries with over 70 per cent of the world population living in countries where inequality has grown further and these include India and China. Traders were also seen taking a note of industry lobby NASSCOM’s statement that India needs to imbibe best practices and policies from countries like Israel in order to accelerate innovation.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green, as German economic confidence strengthened significantly at the start of the year to the highest level since 2015, as the signing of the Phase 1 deal between the US and China eased trade tensions. Asian markets were also trading in green, after Malaysia's central bank unexpectedly reduced its interest rate as policymakers said it as a pre-emptive measure to secure growth amid price stability. The Monetary Policy Committee of Bank Negara Malaysia decided to reduce the overnight policy rate by 25 basis points to 2.75 percent.

Back home, realty stocks were in watch, amid a private report stating that housing sales fell 9 per cent during October-December across nine cities to 60,453 units due to economic slowdown and liquidity crisis.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 41101.22, down by 222.59 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 41059.04 and 41532.29. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.29%, while Small cap index was down by 0.05%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.07%, TECK up by 0.94%, Healthcare up by 0.13%, Consumer Durables up by 0.10% and Basic Materials up by 0.06%, while Power down by 2.11%, Utilities down by 1.74%, PSU down by 1.43%, Metal down by 1.32% and Oil & Gas down by 1.16% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Nestle up by 1.83%, TCS up by 1.48%, HCL Tech. up by 1.46%, Infosys up by 1.01% and SBI up by 0.40%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 4.89%, NTPC down by 3.92%, Power Grid down by 2.89%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.80% and Maruti Suzuki down by 2.47% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to advise the Centre on measures needed to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and start-ups in the country, the government has set up a National Startup Advisory Council, which will help to drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities.

The Council will suggest measures to foster a culture of innovation amongst citizens and students in particular, promote innovation in all sectors of economy across the country, including semi-urban and rural areas, support creative and innovative ideas through incubation and research and development to transform them into valuable products, processes or solutions to improve productivity and efficiency and create an environment of absorption of innovation in industry.

Besides, it will also suggest measures to facilitate public organizations to assimilate innovation with a view to improving public service delivery, promote creation, protection and commercialization of intellectual property rights, make it easier to start, operate, grow and exit businesses by reducing regulatory compliances and costs, promote ease of access to capital for startups, incentivize domestic capital for investments into startups, mobilize global capital for investments in Indian startups, keep control of startups with original promoters and provide access to global markets for Indian startups.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 12122.95, down by 46.90 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 12087.90 and 12225.05. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Zee Entertainment up by 3.94%, Grasim Industries up by 3.03%, Nestle up by 1.72%, HCL Tech. up by 1.52% and TCS up by 1.50%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 4.73%, Coal India down by 4.33%, NTPC down by 3.76%, Power Grid down by 2.67% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.47% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly higher; Hang Seng increased 295.19 points or 1.05% to 28,280.52, Nikkei 225 surged 166.79 points or 0.7% to 24,031.35, KOSPI rose 27.56 points or 1.23% to 2,267.25, Shanghai Composite gained 15.09 points or 0.49% to 3,067.23 and Straits Times was up by 6.86 points or 0.21% to 3,254.03. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was down by 4.35 points or 0.07% to 6,233.80.

All European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 gained 8.10 points or 0.11% to 7,618.80, France’s CAC rose 0.77 points or 0.01% to 6,046.76 and Germany’s DAX was up by 34.44 points or 0.25% to 13,590.31.