Markets trade lower with marginal cut in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made positive start on Monday following Asian peers. But, soon, markets lost ground and slipped below neutral lines to trade with marginal cut in early deals. Rising coronavirus cases dampened sentiments. India has recorded over 58,108 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, taking its total to 2,647,316. With over 961 fatalities reported on Sunday, the country's death toll has surged to 51,045. Traders turned cautious as the government data showed that contracting for the fifth straight month, India's exports slipped 10.21 per cent to $23.64 billion in July, on account of decline in the shipments of petroleum, leather and gems and jewellery items. Though, downside remained capped with report that foreign portfolio investors (FPI) remained net investors in Indian markets in the first half of August, pumping in Rs 28,203 crore in debt and equities on net basis in the period. Traders took note of president of CII’s statement that ‘PM’s address was an address of confidence in COVID times combined with aspiration & hope. India has to understand the global trend, which is instead of multilateralism to bilateralism. Move away from multilateralism because that is out of fashion as I see it.’

On the global front, most of the Asian markets are trading higher as reports that China's central bank has injected liquidity into the financial system bolstered sentiments. Nevertheless, investors remained cautious amid worries about rising U.S.-China tensions and the stalled U.S. stimulus talks. The South Korean and Indonesian markets are closed for holidays.

Back home, telecom stocks were in limelight as the Supreme Court will again hear the AGR case today. In last week's hearing, the Supreme Court had directed telecom companies under insolvency to submit details of spectrum sharing agreements that they have entered into. In scrip specific development, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals rallied after posting an over two-fold increase in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended June.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 37804.55, down by 72.79 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 37778.44 and 38119.38. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.21%, while Small cap index was up by 0.05%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.05%, IT up by 0.81%, Power up by 0.75%, Consumer Durables up by 0.71%, TECK up by 0.54%, while Energy down by 1.54%, Telecom down by 1.27%, Oil & Gas down by 0.85%, Healthcare down by 0.56%, Bankex down by 0.56% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 2.09%, Tata Steel up by 1.16%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.11%, Infosys up by 1.08% and ONGC up by 1.04%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.99%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.87%, Reliance Industries down by 1.85%, SBI down by 1.25% and ICICI Bank down by 0.69% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to support economic growth amidst covid-19 pandemic, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has exhorted large central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) to achieve 50 percent of their planned capital expenditure (capex) target for FY21 by the month of September. She also asked the secretaries to closely monitor the performance of CPSEs in order to ensure capital expenditure to the tune of 50 percent of capital outlay by the end of second quarter of 2020-21 and make appropriate plans for it.

hile mentioning the significant role of CPSEs in giving a push to the growth of the Indian economy, the minister encouraged the CPSEs to perform better to achieve their targets and to ensure that the capital outlay provided to them for the financial year 2020-21 is spent properly and within time. She felt that better performance of CPSEs can help the economy in a big way to recover from the impact of COVID-19. She stated that the CPSEs discussed constraints being faced by them especially due to COVID–19 pandemic. She said ‘extraordinary situation requires extraordinary efforts and with collective efforts, we will not only perform better but also help the Indian economy to achieve better results.’

The combined capex target for 2020-21 for these seven CPSEs is Rs 1,24,825 crore as against Rs 1,29,821 crore in the previous fiscal. The achievement was Rs 1,14,730 crore i.e. 88.37 percent. During Q1 of FY 2019-20, the achievement was Rs 20,172 crore (15.53 percent) and achievement up to July 2020 (FY 2020-21) is Rs 24,933 crore (20 percent).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11167.45, down by 10.95 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 11156.45 and 11248.90. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 2.55%, Zee Entertainment up by 2.33%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.57%, Eicher Motors up by 1.45% and Tata Steel up by 1.33%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.96%, Reliance Industries down by 1.86%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.74%, BPCL down by 1.67% and SBI down by 1.42% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Straits Times rose 0.14 points or 0.01% to 2,581.46, Hang Seng jumped 317.47 points or 1.26% to 25,500.48, Taiwan Weighted surged 128.19 points or 1.00% to 12,923.65 and Shanghai Composite was up by 76.20 points or 2.27% to 3,436.30, while Nikkei 225 slipped 207.22 points or 0.89% to 23,082.14.