Bourses continue to trade in negative zone

Indian bourses continue to trade lower in afternoon session with Sensex and Nifty tumbling by 320.73 and 87.80 points, respectively. Weak broader indices along with heavy sell off at bankex, metal and consumer durables counters dragged the markets lower. Sentiments remained dampened with a private report that India's GDP will contract by 3 percent in FY21 because of the coronavirus pandemic, assuming the economy is opened up fully from next month. It also said the RBI will monetise the fiscal deficit through purchase of government bonds of up to $95 billion through open market operations, and its revaluation reserves of $127 billion may also be used to recapitalise state-run banks. Meanwhile, International Monetary Fund Chief Economist Gita Gopinath urged governments to shift to ‘equity-like’ support from one focused on loans as the coronavirus pandemic inflicts prolonged damage on companies.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading lower tracking weak cues from US stock market and on concerns of resurgence of new coronavirus cases in different parts of the world dampening hopes of global economic recovery. Back home, in scrip specific developments, PNB declined on reporting fraud of Rs 3,688.58 crore in DHFL account and Vodafone Idea tumbled on report of default on payments to telecom tower companies.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36416.96, down by 320.73 points or 0.87% after trading in a range of 36414.48 and 36748.89. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.84%, while Small cap index was down by 0.73%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 0.69%, Energy up by 0.29% and FMCG was up by 0.18%, while Bankex down by 1.98%, Metal down by 1.88%, Consumer Durables down by 1.52%, Basic Materials down by 1.39%, Capital Goods down by 1.30% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.61%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.02%, Power Grid Corporation up by 0.87% and Reliance Industries was up by 0.64%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 3.90%, Axis Bank down by 3.31%, ONGC down by 2.93%, HDFC down by 2.75% and Tata Steel was down by 2.41% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, calling for transparency in data usage, IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that data of one country should not become surreptitious property of another country. He said a true digital world can only survive in democracy, and there is a need for more transparent system. He noted that the essence of digital world is transparency where on a click of button, everything is available and this system must be maintained in a robust manner. He added that the world needs more transparency and openness.

Talking about India's data protection law in works, Prasad said the Bill is being examined by select committee of Parliament. He said in the proposed data protection bill, the government has maintained that personal data should only be used after the consent and only to the extent the consent is given. He noted that the draft personal data protection bill bars storing and processing of personal data by entities without the explicit consent of an individual. However, it provides for exemptions for reasonable purposes such as prevention and detection of any unlawful activity including fraud, whistle blowing, merger and acquisitions, network and information security, credit scoring, recovery of debt, processing of publicly available personal data, and the operation of search engines.

Talking about support for development of apps in the country, after the government banned 59 Chinese mobile applications, the minister said the government has schemes to fund start-ups and there are various venture capital firms that are handholding the Indian start-up ecosystems.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10725.65, down by 87.80 points or 0.81% after trading in a range of 10713.00 and 10819.40. There were 9 stocks advancing against 41 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 2.75%, Britannia Industries up by 1.49%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.08%, Power Grid Corporation up by 0.79% and Reliance Industries up by 0.75%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 3.80%, Bharti Infratel down by 3.50%, Axis Bank down by 3.18%, Grasim Industries down by 3.11% and Adani Ports & SEZ down by 3.06% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading lower; Jakarta Composite lost 17.06 points or 0.34% to 5,035.73, Taiwan Weighted dropped 119.01 points or 0.98% to 12,073.68, Shanghai Composite declined 52.85 points or 1.53% to 3,397.74, KOSPI fell 17.65 points or 0.81% to 2,150.25, Nikkei 225 slipped 238.48 points or 1.06% to 22,290.81 and Hang Seng was down by 576.89 points or 2.2% to 25,633.27.