Indices continue weak run in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued their weak run and fell over half percent in Thursday's morning deals, ahead of the expiry of January-series futures and options (F&O) contracts later today and weakness in the broader Asian markets. Traders overlooked report that Gita Gopinath, the Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said that India has entered 2021 with better prospects than what was expected last year and has been able to restore activity faster than many economies. On the sectoral front, agriculture industry stocks were in focus with IMF's Chief Economist Gita Gopinath’s statement that India's recently-enacted agri laws have the potential to increase farmers' income, but there is a need to provide a social safety net to the vulnerable cultivators.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading lower following the overnight sell-off on Wall Street amid concerns about excessive stock valuations. In addition, the U.S. Federal Reserve said it will maintain asset purchases at the current rate until ‘substantial further progress’ has been made toward its goals of maximum employment and price stability. Besides, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said the value of retail sales in Japan was down 0.3 percent on year in December, coming in at 14.434 trillion yen. That beat expectations for a decline of 0.4 percent following the downwardly revised 0.6 percent increase in November.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 47116.34, down by 293.59 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 46821.21 and 47172.02. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.17%, while Small cap index up by 0.05%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 0.78%, Oil & Gas up by 0.70%, Industrials up by 0.39%, Capital Goods up by 0.36% and Consumer Durables up by 0.30%, while FMCG down by 0.92%, IT down by 0.86%, Healthcare down by 0.71%, TECK down by 0.67% and Bankex down by 0.64% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 1.61%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.18%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.87%, Indusind Bank up by 0.84% and Reliance Industries up by 0.80%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.65%, HDFC Bank down by 2.61%, Power Grid down by 2.29%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.13% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.02% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has said foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows from April to November 2020 have increased by 22 percent (YoY) to $58.37 billion - the highest for the first 8 months of any fiscal.

Apart from this, the FDI equity inflows received during April-November 2020, rose by 37 percent (Y-o-Y) to $43.85 billion. This is the highest FDI inflows in April-November for the first 8 months of any fiscal. It was $32.11 billion in April to November, 2019-20.

Stating the reason for the increase in the FDI inflows, the Centre stated that it is due to the measure taken by the Government on the fronts of FDI policy reforms, investment facilitation and ease of doing business.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 13876.10, down by 91.40 points or 0.65% after trading in a range of 13794.20 and 13898.25. There were 19 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 2.14%, Adani Ports &Special up by 1.52%, BPCL up by 1.46%, ONGC up by 1.00% and Bajaj Finance up by 0.97%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.93%, HDFC Bank down by 2.48%, UPL down by 2.40%, Wipro down by 2.16% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.11% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 462.79 points or 1.62% to 28,172.42, Hang Seng decreased 576.26 points or 1.97% to 28,721.27, Taiwan Weighted dropped 302.73 points or 1.93% to 15,398.72, Jakarta Composite lost 85.44 points or 1.4% to 6,023.73, KOSPI fell 62.98 points or 2.02% to 3,059.58, Straits Times trembled 34.31 points or 1.16% to 2,924.32 and Shanghai Composite declined 53.06 points or 1.48% to 3,520.28.