Key gauges continue to trade lower in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower in morning deals, dragged by Metal stocks and caution ahead of the Budget presentation on February 1. Fresh foreign fund outflows and weak trends in global equities also added to markets' weakness. Traders remained cautious as a monthly government report stated that several infrastructure projects worth above Rs 150 crore each registered a cumulative cost overrun of Rs 5.42 lakh crore. Traders overlooked Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran’s statement that India can achieve potential growth rate of 7.5% in the next few years. For this, he said the country needs to emphasis on strengthening manufacturing and export competitiveness. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red as Apple warned of margin pressures and trade tensions returned to haunt investors. U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Canada with a 50 percent tariff on any aircraft sold in the U.S., the latest salvo in his trade war with America's northern neighbour.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 82186.41, down by 379.96 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 81941.03 and 82282.39. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.30%, Consumer Durables up by 1.10%, FMCG up by 1.04%, Healthcare up by 0.65% and Capital Goods up by 0.56%, while Metal down by 4.44%, Basic Materials down by 2.40%, IT down by 1.44%, TECK down by 0.93% and Energy down by 0.83% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 1.11%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.57%, Adani Ports &SEZ up by 0.50%, Axis Bank up by 0.45% and Asian Paints up by 0.36%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 4.67%, Infosys down by 2.23%, HCL Technologies down by 1.86%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.64% and Ultratech Cement down by 1.13% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, World Bank Group President Ajay Banga has said that India should ‘think less’ about tariffs and focus more on opportunities, amid concerns over global trade due to geopolitical tensions. Elaborating on India's opportunities in trade deals, he said the country has signed over 100 regional and bilateral pacts over the last 20 year and the recent India-European Union (EU) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is an example of that.    

Banga said all trade deals are important. He said ‘if you look at the way trade has changed over last two decades, the global trade has quadrupled, while the share of the emerging markets doubled from 20 per cent to 40 per cent. Therefore, emerging markets like India have now become key components in the global trade’. 

India and the EU announced the successful conclusion of a long-pending FTA, often described by leaders as the ‘mother of all deals’. As part of the deal, 93 per cent of Indian shipments will enjoy duty-free access to the 27-nation bloc, while import of luxury cars and wines from the EU will become less expensive. The agreement, finalised after nearly two decades of negotiations, will create a market of about 2 billion people across the world's fourth-largest economy, India, and the second-largest economic bloc, the EU.   

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25292.05, down by 126.85 points or 0.50% after trading in a range of 25218.95 and 25323.15. There were 19 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Apollo Hospital up by 2.04%, Tata Consumer Product up by 1.50%, ITC up by 1.24%, Nestle up by 1.13% and Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 0.75%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 5.69%, Tata Steel down by 4.65%, Coal India down by 3.07%, Infosys down by 2.37% and HCL Technologies down by 1.91% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted lost 276.02 points or 0.85% to 32,260.25, Shanghai Composite weakened 35.34 points or 0.85% to 4,122.64, Hang Seng declined 440.09 points or 1.57% to 27,528.00 and Straits Times fell 8.1 points or 0.16% to 4,921.93.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 surged 103.4 points or 0.19% to 53,479.00, Jakarta Composite gained 96.95 points or 1.16% to 8,329.15 and KOSPI increased 48.26 points or 0.92% to 5,269.51.