Sensex ends volatile session with minor gains

On Thursday, Indian equity benchmarks ended the volatile day of trade with minor gains, on the backdrop of participants buying, followed by a positive trade in Asian equities. Key indices made an optimistic start and soon, gathered pace to hit fresh lifetime highs, taking hint from NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar’s statement that the government is likely to take further actions in dealing with the crisis of financial sector.

However, key indices pared early gains to trade flat with some negative bias in early afternoon deals as traders turned cautious with the data showing that India's merchandise exports fell for the fifth straight month. The Commerce & Industry Ministry data showed that the exports contracted by 1.8 per cent in December 2019 to $27.36 billion, as processed petroleum exports saw lower receipts and broad-based decline continued to plague all the major foreign exchange earning sectors. Imports also declined by 8.83 per cent, which brought down the trade deficit to $11.25 billion during the month under review. Sentiments remained dampened with Former Finance Secretary Subhash Garg’s statement that India's real fiscal deficit in FY20 is likely to be higher at 4.5-5 per cent of GDP due to an expected shortfall in revenue, and higher spending. Investors also remained cautious ahead of important December quarter earnings.

Though, markets once again entered into green terrain and managed to keep their heads above water in the dying hour of trade, as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced new rules, in a bid to improve user convenience and increase the security of card transactions. The RBI asked the issuers to provide a facility to switch on / off and set / modify transaction limits (within the overall card limit, if any, set by the issuer) for all types of transactions - domestic and international, at PoS / ATMs / online transactions / contactless transactions, etc. Some support also came with a report that the MSME Export Promotion Council (MSNE-EPC) is holding the first three-day summit for aspiring entrepreneurs in the North-East from Friday to pave the way for development of entrepreneurship and businesses by women and youths of the region.

BSE Sensex ended at 41932.56, up by 59.83 points or 0.14 per cent after trading in a range of 41,812.28 and 42,059.45. There were 12 stocks advancing, against 18 stocks declining on the index. The broader indices ended in green; the BSE mid-cap index rose 0.78 per cent, while small-cap index was up by 0.78 per cent.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.83 per cent, Healthcare up by 0.68 per cent, Consumer Durables up by 0.67 per cent, Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services up by 0.64 per cent and Telecom up by 0.43 per cent, while Metal down by 1.45 per cent, PSU down by 0.61 per cent, Oil & Gas down by 0.54 per cent, Basic Materials down by 0.47 per cent and Utilities down by 0.04 per cent were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Nestle up by 3.23 per cent, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.38 per cent, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.36 per cent, Bharti Airtel up by 1.34 per cent and Reliance Industries up by 0.90 per cent. On the flip side, NTPC down by 1.94 per cent, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.70 per cent, Tata Steel down by 1.54 per cent, Tech Mahindra down by 1.48 per cent and Axis Bank down by 1.19 per cent were the top losers.