Benchmark continue lackluster trade

In line with Asian peers, the Indian equity benchmarks continued to show a sluggish trend in afternoon session, with Sensex and Nifty trading below their psychological levels of 45,750 and 13,450, respectively. The sentiments were under pressure with former Deputy Governor of RBI Viral Acharya’s statement that revising up inflation bands for the central bank will hurt the poor. He also said India has to devise ways of pushing up growth in a structural manner and not by ‘pump-priming’ measures like easy credit and easy liquidity. Traders shrugged of reports that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) raised the growth forecast for India in the current fiscal year to minus 8 percent from the minus 9 percent projection in September while keeping the outlook for the next fiscal year at 8 percent. Weak broader indices along with sell off at basic materials, public sector and capital goods counters dragged the markets lower.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly lower amid slowing progress of US stimulus talks and a stalemate in Brexit negotiations. Back home, on sectoral front, cement stocks were under pressure after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) raided cement companies on price cartelisation allegations.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 45745.89, down by 357.61 points or 0.78% after trading in a range of 45685.87 and 46001.97. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.90%, while Small cap index was down by 0.83%.

The only gaining sectoral index on the BSE was FMCG up by 1.25%, while Basic Materials down by 1.67%, PSU down by 1.27%, Capital Goods down by 1.18%, Power down by 1.17% and Bankex was down by 1.17% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Nestle up by 2.50%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.52%, ITC up by 1.12%, Titan Company up by 0.36% and Maruti Suzuki was up by 0.35%. On the flip side, Ultratech Cement down by 3.26%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.34%, Indusind Bank down by 2.28%, HDFC Bank down by 1.85% and ICICI Bank was down by 1.43% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Department of Telecom (DoT) Member (Services) Bharat Kumar Jog has said that there is a need to expedite implementation of new telecom policy approved by the Cabinet in 2018, and lower the reserve price for 5G spectrum. He also said forward looking policies are needed to derive benefits from the emerging technologies.

Jog has stated that National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP) 2018 seeks to unlock transformative power of digital communications network to achieve the goal of digital empowerment and well being of the people of India. He also said the NDCP 2018 has most of the targets set to be achieved by 2022. However, he said several strategies that have been envisaged under the policy approved almost two years back are yet to be implemented including rationalisation of taxes, levies and spectrum price.

DoT Member further said the policy initiatives required from the government for 5G must include and ensure spectrum availability at affordable prices, lower reserve price, uniform RoW (right of way) policy for fiberisation etc. He added that telecom operators have been demanding the government to make available spectrum for 5G at the earliest and lower the reserve price.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 13422.95, down by 106.15 points or 0.78% after trading in a range of 13399.30 and 13488.50. There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Nestle up by 2.67%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.05%, Britannia Industries up by 1.79%, ITC up by 1.00% and Hindalco was up by 0.60%. On the flip side, UPL down by 12.69%, Ultratech Cement down by 3.15%, Shree Cement down by 2.59%, Tata Motors down by 2.46% and Indusind Bank was down by 2.32% were the top losers.

Asian markets were mostly in red; KOSPI fell 9.01 points or 0.33% to 2,746.46, Hang Seng decreased 137.09 points or 0.52% to 26,365.75, Straits Times trembled 12.00 points or 0.42% to 2,831.07, Nikkei 225 slipped 61.70 points or 0.23% to 26,756.24, Taiwan Weighted dropped 140.65 points or 0.98% to 14,249.49 and Jakarta Composite was down by 12.74 points or 0.21% to 5,931.67.

On the other side, Shanghai Composite was up by 2.61 points or 0.08% to 3,374.57.