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Markets trade firm in early deals; Sensex above 40,600 mark
Nov-20-2019

Indian equity benchmarks made gap-up opening on Wednesday and are trading firm in early deals on buying in Energy, Telecom and Oil & Gas stocks. Gains in market heavy weight Reliance Industries also supported the indices. Traders took note of report that the government categorically stated that it does not intend to revise its fiscal deficit target of 3.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for the current financial year notwithstanding the slowdown in economic activities. Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur said expenditure of various ministries and departments of the government is as per the estimates approved by Parliament. Market participants overlooked ratings agency CARE Ratings’ report that the pace of employment growth in India slowed in the last two years with job creation growing 3.9% in 2017-18 and 2.8% in 2018-19.

On the global front, all the Asian markets were trading lower on Wednesday after US President Donald Trump threatened higher tariffs on Chinese goods if a trade deal is not reached between the two economic powerhouses. Report that the US Senate passed legislation supporting protesters in Hong Kong also weighed on the markets. China has condemned the US Senate measure.

Back home, telecom stocks were in focus with report that the telecom regulator will wait for operators to report their new tariffs to the authority before taking a view on whether the revised pricing is within the regulatory framework. In scrip specific development, Reliance Industries gained amid report suggested that the company will raise tariffs in the next few weeks. However, Yes Bank came under pressure after the Reserve Bank of India has found that it has under-reported bad loans by Rs 3,277 crore in the year ended March 31.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40645.11, up by 175.41 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 40575.96 and 40736.14. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.21%, while Small cap index was up by 0.11%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 2.69%, Telecom up by 1.23%, Oil & Gas up by 1.07%, Capital Goods up by 0.95% and Healthcare was up by 0.94%, while Power down by 0.52%, Utilities down by 0.44%, FMCG down by 0.42%, Consumer Durables down by 0.20% and Auto was down by 0.11% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 3.61%, Indusind Bank up by 3.42%, Sun Pharma up by 2.29%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.69% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.92%. On the flip side, Yes Bank down by 1.01%, NTPC down by 0.81%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.74%, ITC down by 0.72% and Infosys down by 0.62% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has categorically stated that it does not intend to revise its fiscal deficit target of 3.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) for the current financial year (FY20) despite slowdown in economic activities. Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur has said expenditure of various ministries and departments of the government is as per the estimates approved by Parliament.

In the first half of the financial year, 53.4% of Budget Estimates was spent by various ministries and departments. Thakur also pointed out the steps taken by the government to boost economic activities. Besides, the real GDP growth slowed to an over six-year low of 5% in the first quarter of the current financial year.

Besides, the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) in its latest data had showed that India's fiscal deficit reached nearly 93% of the Budget Estimate (BE) at Rs 6.52 lakh crore in the first half (April-September) of the current fiscal year (2019-20). In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit or the gap between expenditure and revenue was Rs 6,51,554 crore as on September 30, 2019.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11977.95, up by 37.85 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 11966.05 and 12006.65. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Reliance Industries up by 3.59%, Indusind Bank up by 3.08%, Sun Pharma up by 1.76%, Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 1.69% and Larsen & Toubro up by 1.45%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 3.57%, Yes Bank down by 1.79%, Britannia Industries down by 1.30%, Eicher Motors down by 0.99% and GAIL India down by 0.92% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 184.39 points or 0.79% to 23,108.26, Hang Seng decreased 169.62 points or 0.63% to 26,924.18, Taiwan Weighted dropped 58.06 points or 0.5% to 11,598.34, KOSPI fell 27.63 points or 1.28% to 2,125.61, Shanghai Composite declined 11.03 points or 0.38% to 2,922.96, Straits Times trembled 6.13 points or 0.19% to 3,232.74 and Jakarta Composite was down by 5.40 points or 0.09% to 6,146.69.

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