Bourses trim gains to come off day’s high in afternoon deals

Indian key bourses pared most of the gains to come off their day’s highs in afternoon session but remained in green terrain on account of buying in front line blue chip counters. The sentiments were still getting some support with a monthly survey indicating that India's services sector activity surged to a seven-year high in January driven by sharp increase in new business orders, leading to job creation and business optimism amid favorable market conditions. The IHS Markit India Services Business Activity Index rose from 53.3 in December to 55.5 in January, signaling the strongest upturn in output in seven years. Traders also took a note of Fitch Ratings’ statement that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget for 2020-21 was light on new structural reforms and added ‎it has not materially altered its forecasts for India's economic growth to rise to 5.6 percent in the next fiscal from 4.6 percent in 2019-20. However, gains remain capped as some anxiety came with ratings agency Crisil warned of potentially high stress in non-banking financial companies’ (NBFCs) wholesale book well above the reported bad loan numbers by March, indicating rising risks to their retail books. On the sectoral front, renewable energy stocks were in limelight as India has commissioned renewable energy (RE) projects totalling 7,591.99 MW during April-December, 2019-20. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading higher, as Chinese stocks nudged higher on hopes of additional stimulus to lessen the economic impact of a coronavirus outbreak, but risks remain as the illness continues to spread and the death toll neared 500. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40823.39, up by 34.01 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 40703.32 and 41023.64. There were 14 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.94%, while Small cap index was up by 0.46%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.85%, Capital Goods up by 1.42%, Telecom up by 1.37%, Industrials up by 1.25% and PSU up by 0.82%, while IT down by 0.23%, Consumer Discretionary down by 0.19% and TECK was down by 0.10% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 1.61%, Tata Steel up by 1.31%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.29%, HCL Technologies up by 1.21% and Mahindra & Mahindra was up by 1.21%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.86%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.75%, Infosys down by 1.63%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.98% and Asian Paints was down by 0.95% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to boost India’s outbound shipments, the commerce ministry has started a process to prepare a District Export Plan (DEP) specific to each district in every State/ Union territory (UT) through an institutional structure at the district level. The plan will include the support required by the local industry in boosting their manufacturing and exports with impetus on supporting the industry from the production stage to the exporting stage. The plan will also include strategy to enhance logistics and infrastructure at the district level and better utilisation of the Market Access Initiative (MAI) scheme of the ministry for inviting foreign buyers.

Informative material on various incentives provided by the government and states will be disseminated to the industry and other potential exporters. Budgetary support will be provided to make outreach at the district level and prepare this plan. State and UTs will be assisted in preparing an annual Export Ranking Index of different districts to rank each district on its export competitiveness. In order to prepare data, efforts have been made by the ministry to look into the feasibility of preparing district-level export data from the existing set-up. The products identified, which has export potential, from the 750 districts in the country include leather, spices, garments, wool, food products, ceramics, cement, silk, carpet, glass items, metal crafts, sports goods, pharmaceuticals, engineering items, auto parts, poultry, vegetables, cut flowers, and scientific instruments.

For the plan, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has been engaging with states/ UTs to initiate its preparation and implementation. The plan will be specific to each district. The DGFT is also developing a portal to enable the states to upload all information related to the products with export potential of every district. The preliminary exercise for the preparation of the plan will include an assessment of a district to identify the current export profile and its further potential in the district.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11993.00, up by 13.35 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 11953.35 and 12049.60. There were 27 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Yes Bank up by 7.73%, Tata Motors up by 6.55%, BPCL up by 2.50%, UPL up by 2.27% and Bharti Infratel up by 2.19%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 6.95%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.98%, Dr. Reddys Lab down by 2.41%, Adani Ports &SEZ down by 2.01% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.90% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading higher; Nikkei 225 surged 234.97 points or 1.02% to 23,319.56, Shanghai Composite gained 24.53 points or 0.88% to 2,807.82, Straits Times advanced 29.70 points or 0.94% to 3,186.27, KOSPI rose 7.73 points or 0.36% to 2,165.63, Jakarta Composite soared 27.47 points or 0.46% to 5,949.81, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 17.70 points or 0.15% to 11,573.62 and Hang Seng was up by 50.68 points or 0.19% to 26,726.66.