Weak trade continues on Dalal Street

Weak trade continued over the Dalal Street in late morning deals, with both Sensex and Nifty trading near their neutral lines. Negative cues from other Asian markers impacted sentiments over the street. Market participants got cautious, as the finance ministry has rejected the demand for further extension of the last date for income tax return (ITR) filing beyond February 15 for the ones where audit is required. In December 2020, the government extended the ITR filing deadline for individuals till January 10 and till February 15 for companies. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, even after Japan posted a current account surplus of 1,878.4 billion yen in November. The Ministry of Finance said that exceeded expectations for a surplus of 1,551 billion yen and was down from 2,144.7 billion yen in October. Exports were down 3.4 percent on year to 6.039 trillion yen, while imports sank an annual 13.6 percent to 5.423 trillion yen. The trade balance showed a surplus of 616.1 billion yen. The capital account showed a surplus of 2.1 billion yen and the financial account had a surplus of 1,593.3 billion yen.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 49216.78, down by 52.54 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 49079.57 and 49270.61. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.81%, while Small cap index was up by 0.33%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 2.40%, Oil & Gas up by 2.03%, Telecom up by 1.96%, Metal up by 1.64% and Realty up by 1.62%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.98%, Healthcare down by 0.54%, FMCG down by 0.45%, Bankex down by 0.45% and Capital Goods down by 0.31% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.84%, ONGC up by 1.56%, Reliance Industries up by 1.37%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.91% and SBI up by 0.73%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.99%, Titan Company down by 1.84%, Sun Pharma down by 1.66%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.65% and Hindustan Unilever down by 1.46% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, ratings agency Icra has said India's domestic traffic declined around 45 per cent to about 71 lakh passengers in December last year over December 2019 even as passenger traffic was up 12 per cent sequentially over November 2020.

It said the capacity deployment in December 2020 at around 67 per cent (vis-a-vis December 2019) is a significant increase over the 52 per cent capacity deployed in October 2020 and 59 per cent in November.

Icra  Vice President  -- Kinjal Shah  said the number of flights departing has also gradually increased from 416 from the resumption of domestic operations on May 25, 2020 to 2,230 on Day 219 (December 28, 2020). She added for December 2020, the average daily departures were nearly 2,048, significantly lower than the average daily departures of 3,062 in December 2019, though better than some 1,806 in November last year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14494.25, up by 9.50 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 14432.85 and 14510.05. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 10.29%, Eicher Motors up by 5.24%, GAIL India up by 4.38%, Coal India up by 3.88% and Indian Oil Corporation up by 3.13%. On the flip side, Divis Lab down by 1.99%, Titan Company down by 1.98%, Asian Paints down by 1.96%, Sun Pharma down by 1.73% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.64% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Straits Times lost 8.60 points or 0.29% to 2,975.30, Taiwan Weighted fell 67.69 points or 0.44% to 15,489.61, KOSPI declined 89.72 points or 2.85% to 3,058.73 and Nikkei declined 3.20 points or 0.01% to 28,135.83. On the other hand, Shanghai Composite was up by 28.36 points or 0.80% to 3,559.86 and Hang Seng surged 129.29 points or 0.46% to 28,037.