Key gauges end marginally lower after choppy session

Indian equity benchmarks ended with marginal losses, after swinging between looses and gains through the day, as investors awaited official release of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data for second quarter of the current financial year due later today. The benchmarks for most part of the day traded in a range bound manner. Investors’ sentiment remain dented 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. A sharp depreciation in the rupee against the US dollar also weighed on sentiments. Indian rupee settled at 74.05 against the US dollar, registering a fall of 17 paise over its previous close.

However, losses remain capped as some support came with Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant’s statement 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. Some support also came as the SBI Ecowrap in its latest report has stated that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections are likely to be 10-month high of Rs 1.08 lakh crore in November as compared to Rs 1.05 lakh crore in October 2020. Meanwhile, the government said it has extended the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) to the health sector and 26 other sectors identified by the Kamath Committee. The National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Limited (NCGTC) has issued the operational guidelines for implementation of ECLGS 2.0 scheme.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly in green, while European markets were trading mostly in green, as official data showed the China’s industrial profits expanded strongly in October. Industrial profits advanced 28.2 percent on a yearly basis in October, marking the sixth consecutive rise in profits as the economy showed signals of robust rebound from the coronavirus driven downturn. However, investors 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, on the sectoral front, FMCG stocks were in 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.

Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 110.02 points or 0.25% to 44,149.72, while the CNX Nifty was down by 18.05 points or 0.14% to 12,968.95.

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 44,407.28 and 43,995.41, respectively and there were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.91%, while Small cap index was up by 2.40%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.74%, Consumer Durables up by 2.44%, Consumer Discretionary up by 1.60%, Auto up by 1.50%, Utilities up by 1.33% while, Energy down by 1.06%, TECK down by 0.97%, IT down by 0.93%, Telecom down by 0.81%, Oil & Gas down by 0.17% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 2.85%, Titan Company up by 2.32%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.20%, Tata Steel up by 1.57% and Bajaj Finance up by 1.56%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 2.63%, HCL Technologies down by 2.39%, ONGC down by 2.12%, Axis Bank down by 1.75% and TCS down by 1.53% 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 traded in a range of 13,035.30 and 12,914.30 and there were 15 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining, while 1 stock remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 2.82%, Asian Paints up by 2.01%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.00%, Divi's Laboratories up by 1.80%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.31%. On the flip side, Nestle India down by 4.34%, Power Grid down by 3.24%, JSW Steel down by 2.60%, Shree Cement down by 2.33% and HCL Technologies down by 2.24% were the top losers.

European markets were trading mostly in green, France’s CAC increased 26.18 points or 0.47% to 5,592.97 and Germany’s DAX increased 27.81 points or 0.21% to 13,314.38, while UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 33.72 points or 0.53% to 6,329.21.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Friday due to positive news surrounding potential vaccines to treat Covid-19 fanned optimism about a speedy global economic revival. AstraZeneca is likely to run an additional global trial to assess the efficacy of its Covid-19 vaccine using a lower dosage, its chief executive was quoted as saying amid questions over the results from its late-stage study. Further, easing US political uncertainty after President-elect Joe Biden's transition to the White House also lifted sentiment. Chinese shares climbed after data showed the country's industrial profits advanced 28.2 percent on a yearly basis in October, marking the sixth consecutive rise in profits as the economy showed signals of robust rebound from the corona virus driven downturn.