After opening the day on a positive note today, Indian share markets witnessed losses thereafter and ended their trading session marginally lower. Losses were largely seen in the FMCG sector and IT sector, while metal stocks ended the day higher.
At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 110 points (down 0.3%) and the NSE Nifty closed lower by 13 points (down 0.1%). The BSE Mid Cap index ended the day up by 0.4%, while the BSE Small Cap index ended the day up by 0.1%.
Asian stock markets finished in the green as of the most recent closing prices. The Hang Seng was up 1.1% and the Nikkei was trading up by 0.4%. The Shanghai Composite stood higher by 0.9%.
The rupee was trading at 72.61 to the US$ at the time of writing.
In the news from the finance sector, shares of IL&FS Group companies were trading on a positive note today after state-owned insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) said it will not allow debt-ridden IL&FS to collapse and explore options to revive it.
The above announcement comes as earlier this month, it came to light that IL&FS group defaulted on a short-term loan of Rs 10 billion from SIDBI, while a subsidiary has also defaulted Rs 5 billion dues to the development finance institution.
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While IL&FS has nearly Rs 350 billion consolidated debt, IL&FS Financial Services has Rs 170 billion of debt, which sits as standard asset for most of the lenders, the reports noted.
The group has seen its various long-term and short-term borrowing programmes downgraded to 'default' or 'junk' grades by credit rating agencies, even as the regulators are also probing alleged delay in disclosure about certain loan defaults.
According to Moody's Investor Services, IL&FS's outstanding debentures and commercial paper accounted for 1% and 2%, respectively, of India's domestic corporate debt market as of 31 March 2018. Its bank loans made up about 0.5% to 0.7% of banking system loans.
There are concerns that the defaults by IL&FS could cause a contagion in the Indian financial sector.
It would be interesting to see how this pans out. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on all the developments form this space.
In the news from the banking sector, Punjab National Bank share price was in focus today. Shares of the company witnessed buying interest today after it informed bourses that the bank will consider capital infusion of Rs 54.3 billion by the government of India on Thursday.
From the airlines sector, SpiceJet share price also witnessed buying interest today. Gains were seen after reports suggested that the airline is in talks with Airbus to buy its A330neo wide-bodied planes.
As per the news, the report indicated that the airline is firming up plans to fly long haul international routes such as Europe.
We will keep you updated on how this development pans out.
Also, speaking of airline sector, note that India's aviation industry is on a high-growth trajectory.
India's domestic air traffic has seen a prolific growth of 20-25% during 2015 and 2016. And in 2017, it tapered to 17.4%.
However, for the first time, domestic air traffic crossed an important landmark of 100 million passengers in a calendar year, as can be seen from the chart below.
What's foreseeable for India's aviation traffic now is some pressure on the back of the consistent rise in crude oil prices.
Oil prices are closely monitored by the Indian air carriers, as aviation turbine fuel is their single largest input cost. A sharp rise in the cost of fuel puts pressure on margins, and consequently an increase in air fares.
Although air travel is becoming the new normal, investors need to understand the industry dynamics before buying up aviation stocks.
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