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Bourses turn positive
Dec-18-2018

Indian equity benchmarks erased their losses in late afternoon session to turn positive, despite weak cues from European markets. Major industry gainers like Sun Pharma and Power Grid Corporation along with buying at Telecom and Power counters, helped the key indices to recover from losses. Domestic sentiments got relief with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that his government wants to ensure that 99 percent things attract sub-18 per cent GST slab, indicating further simplification of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is on the anvil. Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said that huge investment opportunities exist in India in various sectors including construction for Turkish companies.

However, upside remained capped, as former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan said that at a time when the world economy was growing, demonetisation slowed down India’s economic growth and impacted the GDP significantly. Some concerns also came with reports that the Central GST (CGST) department has detected a fraud of GST and Input Tax Credit (ITC) in the metal scrap business across Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. The fraud amount is likely to around Rs 200 crore. Some anxiety was also due to a private report stating that despite the electoral reverses in key states faced by the ruling BJP, the Union government is unlikely to announce any large farm loan waiver or fiscal sops ahead of general elections.

On the sectoral front, agri stocks were buzzing, amid reports that the food processors' association AIFPA demanded tax on agri-produce processed at a primary level be exempted or lowered to encourage the sector and boost farmers' income, ahead of the GST council meeting, while telecom stocks were ringing loudly, as the department of telecommunications (DoT) set for itself an ambitious target of completing the procedure for auctioning 5G spectrum by August next year.

On the global front, European markets were trading in red, despite Eurozone consumer price inflation in November eased more than initially estimated. The latest data from Eurostat showed that the consumer price index rose 1.9 percent year-on-year, which was slower than the 2 percent flash estimate on November 30. The figure is the lowest since May, when it was at the same level. Asian markets were also trading in red.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 36290.56, up by 20.49 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 36046.52 and 36297.85. There were 21 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.03%, while Small cap index was up by 0.34%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 0.90%, Power up by 0.87%, Capital Goods up by 0.81% and Utilities up by 0.76%, PSU up by 0.74%, while TECK down by 0.80%, IT down by 0.69% and FMCG down by 0.39% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.87%, Power Grid Corporation up by 1.77%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.25%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.04% and Vedanta up by 1.02%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 1.67%, Wipro down by 1.24%, Yes Bank down by 1.21%, HDFC down by 0.75% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.72% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to achieve competitive advantage in global markets, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar has expressed need to identify and remove impediments that are stopping India at global market level. He further said that the global trends should be brought to domestic market and need to make Indian manufacturing an exporting sector as it is an essential growth enabler.

Niti Aayog Vice Chairman mentioned that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants Niti Aayog to explore ways to facilitate an environment for innovations so that India can also witness domestic companies growing to become Google and GE like big MNCs.

However, Rajiv Kumar pointed out the slow growth in agri processing industry as one of the reason for distress in the farm sector in India. He further suggested top industrialists to spot sunrise industry and also select six sectors. Kumar also exhorted them to look for capturing 10 per cent of America's exports. Besides, he said that the industry has to focus on developing the innovation capability of the vendors to match today's dynamic global manufacturing environment.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10890.15, up by 1.80 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 10819.10 and 10893.40. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 2.74%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.86%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.57%, Power Grid Corporation up by 1.53% and JSW Steel up by 1.32%. On the flip side, Zee Entertainment down by 7.61%, UPL down by 3.13%, Infosys down by 1.79%, Yes Bank down by 1.22% and Tech Mahindra down by 1.17% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 391.43 points or 1.82% to 21,115.45, Jakarta Composite dropped 7.44 points or 0.12% to 6,081.87, Straits Times trembled 59.18 points or 1.90% to 3,055.07, KOSPI fell 8.98 points or 0.43% to 2,062.11, Shanghai Composite declined 21.32 points or 0.82% to 2,576.65, Hang Seng decreased 273.73 points or 1.05% to 25,814.25 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 68.71 points or 0.7% to 9,718.82.

All European markets were trading in red; UK’s FTSE 100 dipped 47.96 points or 0.71% to 6,725.28, Germany’s DAX fell 18.47 or 0.17% points to 10,753.73 and France’s CAC was down by 26.71 points or 0.56% to 4,773.16.
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