Local equities continue lackluster trade

Local equity benchmarks continued their lackluster trade in morning session, with losses of around one third of a percent, amid global sell-off. Sentiments remained pessimistic with a report that the country’s fiscal deficit for 2019-20 is expected to widen to 3.8 per cent and the upcoming Budget may set a target of 3.5 per cent for 2020-21. Besides, a report that hit by economic slowdown, India and Brazil drew up an ambitious plan to boost their stuttering economies by expanding cooperation in oil, gas and minerals sectors, and set a target of $15 billion in bilateral trade by 2022. Traders took note of Bibek Debroy’s statement that the chairman of PM’s Economic Advisory Council state that India can end up with a real GDP growth of five per cent this financial year excluding the inflation rate. However, downside remain capped with Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) report that the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose $943 million to touch a life-time high of $462.16 billion in the week ended January 17. In the previous week, the reserves had increased by $58 million to $461.21 billion.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, amid fears of a new viral outbreak, as most Asian markets remained closed for the Lunar New Year holiday. Back home, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das stated that the assessment of the current economic situation is one of the major challenges for central banks. The precise estimation of key parameters such as potential output and output gaps on a real-time basis that are crucial for the conduct of monetary policy is a challenging task.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 41475.10, down by 138.09 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 41323.29 and 41516.27. There were 10 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.44%, while Small cap index was up by 0.38%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 0.67%, Realty up by 0.50%, Consumer Durables up by 0.50%, Consumer Discretionary up by 0.33% and Auto was up by 0.08%, while Metal down by 2.10%, Telecom down by 0.58%, TECK down by 0.45%, IT down by 0.42% and PSU was down by 0.38% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Ultratech Cement up by 1.75%, ICICI Bank up by 1.69%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.53%, Axis Bank up by 0.91% and Titan Company was up by 0.57%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.76%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.58%, SBI down by 1.31%, HDFC Bank down by 1.29% and Power Grid was down by 1.07% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in a major development in terms of construction and completion of expressways and green corridors, the road transport and highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that the government plans to complete three of the 22 expressways and green corridors in the next three years, including the flagship Delhi Mumbai Expressway being built at a new alignment. He said about Delhi Mumbai Expressway, greenfield alignment has been selected to avoid habitation and optimise cost of land acquisition.

Gadkari said ‘we will complete the flagship Delhi Mumbai Express Highway in the next three years. The work will be done in 51 packages and work has already been started on 18. This will be India's longest expressway at 1,320 km and will reduce travel time between Delhi and Mumbai from 24 hours to 13 hours.’ These 22 projects comprising 7,500 km of greenfield expressways and corridors are planned to be completed by FY25 at a cost of Rs 3.10 trillion.

Of the projects, six are 2,250 km expressways to be built at a cost of Rs 1.45 trillion. The remaining 16 are greenfield corridors, including 5,250 km projects to be constructed at a cost of Rs 1.65 trillion Besides Delhi Mumbai Expressway. The minister said the trans-Rajasthan and trans-Haryana projects will be completed within the next three years.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 12203.05, down by 45.20 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 12154.60 and 12216.60. There were 16 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.76%, ICICI Bank up by 1.65%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.61%, Grasim Industries up by 1.45% and Axis Bank was up by 0.94%. On the flip side, JSW Steel down by 3.44%, Vedanta down by 2.85%, Tata Steel down by 2.83%, Hindalco down by 2.39% and Kotak Mahindra Bank was down by 1.46% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading in red, Nikkei 225 slipped 447.90 points or 1.88% to 23,379.28 and Jakarta Composite was down by 69.65 points or 1.12% to 6,174.46.