Benchmarks trade lower with marginal cut in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made cautious start on Friday ahead of GDP figures for the second quarter which is scheduled to be released today post market hours. Markets are trading lower with marginal cut in early deals due to selling in Energy, Metal and Telecom counters. Sentiments remained dulled as SBI Research in its latest report said India’s GDP likely contracted 10.7% in the second quarter, with a further recovery likely in the third quarter, citing improvements in economic indicators over October and November. The union ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI) on November 27 will announce the gross domestic product (GDP) numbers for the second quarter (July-September 2020) of current financial year (FY 2020-21). Adding pessimism, India reported 43,174 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking its tally to 9,309,871. The country's death toll mounted to 135,752. Meanwhile, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said that digital infrastructure has become indispensable to the functioning of society and India can create $1 trillion of economic value using digital technology by 2025.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed in the absence of fresh cues from Wall Street, which was closed overnight for a holiday, and on worries about the continued surge in coronavirus cases in the US and Europe. Investors also turned cautious following news that British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca might conduct an additional global trial to evaluate the efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate as questions were raised about the vaccine's trial results.

Back home, FMCG stocks were under the spotlight after market research agency Nielsen said that India's FMCG market will contract by 1-3 per cent in the 2020 calendar year, as headwinds such as commodity inflation outweigh tailwinds. In scrip specific development, DHFL surged after narrowing its quarterly loss. On other hand, AstraZeneca was trading lower on reports the pharmaceutical company will likely conduct another global trial of the effectiveness of its Covid-19 vaccine trial.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 44173.23, down by 86.51 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 44173.04 and 44407.28. There were 16 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index surged 1.27%, while Small cap index was up by 0.95%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 1.77%, Auto up by 1.38%, Oil & Gas up by 1.23%, Realty up by 1.15%, Consumer discretionary up by 1.01%, while Energy down by 0.57%, Metal down by 0.57%, Telecom down by 0.49%, Bankex down by 0.22%, TECK down by 0.04% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto up by 1.93%, NTPC up by 1.81%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.63%, Asian Paints up by 1.56% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.20%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 2.10%, Axis Bank down by 0.95%, Tata Steel down by 0.90%, SBI down by 0.90% and HDFC down by 0.87% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has said that digital infrastructure has become indispensable to the functioning of society and India can create $1 trillion of economic value using digital technology by 2025. He also said the coronavirus disease (covid-19) pandemic has provided an impetus to the ever-expanding digital infrastructure. He noted that digital infrastructure has emerged as more significant infrastructure as compared to traditional infrastructure necessities such as power and road.

Kant said it is crucial for India to augment digital infrastructure to utilise frontier technology in economic development. He said the digital is the future and adding that if India wants to improve the social sector or health sector then going digital is critical. He pointed out that the global electronics market is estimated to be worth $2 trillion, and India's share in global electronics market has grown from 1.3 percent in 2012 to 3 percent in 2018.

He further said it is still considered to be miniscule, so, the government came up with the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for the electronics industry. he also said it is critical for the industry to utilise those schemes and contribute to the overall ecosystem. Stating that India has been rising in the Global Innovation Index (GII), he said there is an immediate need to develop a local supply chain.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 12970.25, down by 16.75 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 12967.30 and 13035.30. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 4.17%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.84%, NTPC up by 1.81%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.66% and Eicher Motors up by 1.60%. On the flip side, HDFC Life Insurance down by 1.80%, Power Grid down by 1.75%, Hindalco down by 1.57%, SBI down by 0.92% and Axis Bank down by 0.91% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Straits Times slipped 5.86 points or 0.21% to 2,851.62, Hang Seng declined 42.62 points or 0.16% to 26,776.83, Taiwan Weighted slipped 4.25 points or 0.03% to 13,841.41 and Shanghai Composite was down by 1.61 points or 0.05% to 3,368.12. On other hand, Nikkei 225 jumped 89.53 points or 0.34% to 26,626.84, KOSPI rose 3.34 points or 0.13% to 2,629.25 and Jakarta Composite added 14.73 points or 0.26% to 5,774.65.