Bourses turn negative in late afternoon session

In a volatile trade, Indian equity markets turned negative in late afternoon session as traders avoided to take position ahead Christmas holiday on Wednesday. Traders took note of private report that The Union government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $500-million loan on December 20, with a target to support green and sustainable infrastructure projects aligned with India’s climate commitments. Sector wise, telecom sector remained in focused as The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in its subscription data for October 2024 has revealed a decline of 33 lakh active subscribers across the country. The total number of telephone subscribers, including wireless and wireline, stood at 1,188.20 million as of October 31, 2024, reflecting a monthly decline rate of 0.21 per cent. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed after shares of big U.S. technology companies rallied overnight in thin trading at the start of a holiday-shortened week. European markets were trading in green ahead of Christmas break. Markets will remain shut on Wednesday and Thursday for the Christmas holiday. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 78518.44, down by 21.73 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 78397.79 and 78877.36. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.01%, while Small cap index was up by 0.20%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 0.61%, Energy up by 0.55%, FMCG up by 0.51%, Auto up by 0.46% and Consumer Disc was up by 0.18%, while Metal down by 1.11%, Power down by 0.71%, Consumer Durables down by 0.53%, Utilities down by 0.44% and Basic Materials was down by 0.41% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 1.94%, ITC up by 1.05%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.74%, Nestle up by 0.72% and TCS up by 0.70%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.55%, Indusind Bank down by 1.41%, Titan Company down by 1.27%, Power Grid down by 1.27% and SBI down by 1.21% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, credit rating agency ICRA in its latest report has said that redevelopment of India's railway stations is likely to offer business opportunities worth Rs 30,000 crore for engineering, procurement, and construction entities (EPC) players over the next two years. A total of 1,318 railway stations by the Indian Railways are being considered for redevelopment under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme (ABSS). 

The report said earlier, the Government of India (GoI) had envisaged majority of the station redevelopment projects under the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode, which accounted for around 12% for the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) target. However, with limited participation in the PPP mode owing to restrictions on pricing, market risk related to real estate development and limited track record of PPP projects in railways, the government reallocated station redevelopment work on the EPC mode in December 2022. To support this, the budgetary allocation increased by more than seven times from Rs 2159 crore in FY23 to Rs 15,511 crore in FY25 Budget Estimates (BE) and is expected to remain at healthy levels in the medium term.

According to the report, the competition, in traditional segments like roads and buildings, remains elevated and hence the railway station redevelopment provides business opportunities estimated at Rs 30,000 crore for construction companies to grow and derisk their businesses through diversification. The station redevelopment project awards witnessed moderate competition in the past two years, reflecting maximum discounts of up to 18% and a median discount of up to 4% and have been similar to other railway EPC projects where the median discount is up to 5%. Indian Railways, being a strong counterparty, the receivable cycle is also expected to remain low and comparable to that of the NHAI.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23732.20, down by 21.25 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 23709.65 and 23867.65. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 1.86%, Adani Enterprises up by 1.58%, ITC up by 1.00%, Britannia up by 0.99% and BPCL up by 0.99%. On the flip side, JSW Steel down by 1.81%, Tata Steel down by 1.71%, Wipro down by 1.64%, Indusind Bank down by 1.46% and Titan Company down by 1.38% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Hang Seng advanced 215.16 points or 1.07% to 20,098.29, Shanghai Composite strengthened 42.27 points or 1.25% to 3,393.53, Straits Times rose 17.22 points or 0.46% to 3,769.55 and Taiwan Weighted added 15.7 points or 0.07% to 23,120.24. On the flip side, KOSPI dropped 1.49 points or 0.06% to 2,440.52, Jakarta Composite plunged 14.04 points or 0.2% to 7,082.41 and Nikkei 225 was down by 124.49 points or 0.32% to 39,036.85.

European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 24.62 points or 0.3% to 8,127.34 and France’s CAC was up by 29.53 points or 0.4% to 7,301.85.