The market was trading with small gains in morning trade. At 10:43 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 37.41 points or 0.10% at 36,620.15. The Nifty 50 index was up 8.15 points or 0.07% at 10,920.40.
Business activity growth in the Indian service sector cooled further at the start of 2019, amid the weakest upturn in new work since last September. The seasonally adjusted Nikkei India Services Business Activity Index fell for the second straight month to 52.2 in January, from 53.2 in December, indicating a softer expansion in output.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.03%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.16%.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 820 shares rose and 1103 shares fell. A total of 97 shares were unchanged.
Metal shares were mixed. Hindalco Industries (up 1.96%), Hindustan Zinc (up 1.16%), Steel Authority of India (up 0.77%), JSW Steel (up 0.68%), Vedanta (up 0.46%) and National Aluminium Company (up 0.08%), edged higher. Tata Steel (down 0.57%), Jindal Steel & Power (down 0.61%), NMDC (down 0.73%) and Hindustan Copper (down 1%), edged lower.
Telecom stocks tumbled. MTNL (down 2.68%), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 3.18%) and Vodafone Idea (down 1.67%), edged lower.
Bharti Airtel was down 3.39%. Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the senior unsecured rating for Bharti Airtel to Ba1, or junk, from Baa3 as well as the backed senior unsecured notes issued by Bharti's wholly owned subsidiary, Bharti Airtel Int'l (Netherlands) B.V. Moody's has assigned a Ba1 corporate family rating (CFR) to Bharti and withdrawn the company's Baa3 issuer rating. The investors' service company in a statement on Tuesday said that its ratings outlook is negative.
Reliance Communications was down 20.13%. RCom announced after market hours on Friday, 1 February 2019, that its board reviewed the progress of the company's debt resolution plans since the invocation of SDR on 2nd June 2017. The board noted that, despite the passage of over 18 months, lenders have received zero proceeds from the proposed asset monetization plans, and the overall debt resolution process is yet to make any headway. Accordingly, the board decided that the company will seek fast track resolution through the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai. The board believes this course of action will be in the best interests of all stakeholders, ensuring comprehensive debt resolution in a final, transparent and time bound manner within the prescribed 270 days. RCom and only two of its subsidiaries, Reliance Telecom and Reliance Infratel, will take appropriate steps shortly to implement the Board decision. There will be no impact on the business and operations of other subsidiaries of the company, including inter alia GCX, Reliance IDC, etc.
On the economic front, fiscal deficit for the first nine months of the current fiscal, that is April-December, crossed 112.4% of the Budget Estimate (BE). Fiscal deficit for the first nine months is more than Rs 7.01 lakh crore as against the BE of Rs 6.24 lakh crore.
According to the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), the revenue receipts of the government totalled Rs 10.84 lakh crore or 62.8% of BE in 2018-2019 till December, compared with 66.9% during the same period last year.
Tax revenue was 63.2% of BE, compared with 73.4% in the comparable period of the previous year. The total expenditure of the government at December-end was Rs 18.32 lakh crore or 75% of BE.
Overseas, most Asian markets remained closed for public holidays. US stocks closed higher Monday, as investors looked ahead to another week of high-profile earnings and developments in US-China trade talks.
US-China trade talks will remain in focus as a March 1 deadline to avoid an increase on tariffs on Chinese imports looms. On the US data front, US factory orders fell by 0.6% in November.
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