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Sensex Ends 172 Points Higher; IT and Power Stocks Witness Buying
Wed, 11 Dec Closing

Indian share markets continued to trade on a positive note during closing hours and ended their session near day's high.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 172 points (up 0.4%) and the NSE Nifty closed higher by 53 points (up 0.5%).

The BSE Mid Cap index ended up by 0.5%, while the BSE Small Cap index stood flat.

On the sectoral front, gains were seen in the IT sector, power sector and oil & gas sector. Capital goods sector and telecom sector, on the other hand, witnessed selling.

Asian stock markets finished on a mixed note as of the most recent closing prices. The Hang Seng stood up by 0.79% and the Nikkei was trading down by 0.08%, while the Shanghai Composite was trading up by 0.24%.

European markets were also trading on a mixed note. The FTSE 100 was down by 0.11%. The DAX was trading up by 0.13%, while the CAC 40 was trading down by 0.18%.

The rupee was trading at 70.85 to the US$ at the time of writing.

Speaking of the Indian stock markets, smallcap analyst Richa Agarwal talks about the ongoing economic slowdown, an upcoming rebound in the small cap space, and her number 1 stock pick for 2020 in the video below.

Tune in to find out more...

In the news from the telecom sector, Vodafone Idea share price was in focus today amid reports that the company was planning to raise US$ 2.5 billion by sale of assets.

As per a leading financial daily, the telecom operator was in talks to sell its optic fibre business to Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and its data centre to the Edelweiss Group as the telco seeks to raise over US$ 2.5 billion from asset sales ahead of a January deadline to pay statutory dues.

As per the news, the company is in talks with global asset manager Brookfield to sell its 156,000 km of optic fibre assets and Bank of America and Morgan Stanley are the bankers helping Vodafone negotiate with potential buyers.

Note that the government has warned all telecom license holders against any delays in the payment of dues related to adjusted gross revenue (AGR).

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has asked to seek clarifications by December 13 on any doubts that may not have been covered in the recent Supreme Court judgment.

The court has given three months to companies to make the payments.

In October, the Supreme Court decided in favour of the government's contention that all revenue, including that from non-core sources, would be counted in calculating AGR.

Licence holders have to pay about 8% of AGR to the DoT as fees. Telcos also pay about 3-4% of AGR as spectrum usage charges (SUC).

Last month, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Tata Teleservices filed for a limited review of judgement.

While Airtel has sought a review of the interest, penalty and interest on penalty, Vodafone Idea's petition has further urged the Supreme Court to have a relook at the amounts attributed to notional revenue.

Bharti Airtel had later appealed to the court to allow the telco and government to agree on quantum of AGR based dues that need to be paid and the timeline for payments.

The company's board recently approved a proposal to raise up to US$ 4 billion to prepare for the payments.

Stay tuned for more updates from this space.

In the news from the macroeconomic space, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has slashed India's GDP growth to 5.1% for FY19, down from 6.5%.

The bank has also cut its FY20 forecast to 6.5%, down from 7.2%, according to a supplement in its Asian Development Outlook 2019 Update.

The downward revision comes on the back of risk aversion and a credit crunch in the Indian economy resulting from the IL&FS crisis in August 2018.

The report also cites slumping consumption due to slow job growth and rural distress aggravated by a poor harvest as some other factors weighing down on the Indian economy.

Speaking of the Indian economy, with the RBI keeping interest rates unchanged last week, the focus of market participants has now shifted to whether the RBI's rate cut will translate into better economic activity in the near term.

Like this chart shows, RBI rate cuts have always had a big gap with bank lending rates.

Yet Another RBI Rate Cut May Not Result in Lower Lending Rates

Yet Another RBI Rate Cut May Not Result in Lower Lending Rates

Here's what Tanushree Banerjee wrote about it in a recent edition of The 5 Minute WrapUp...

  • It will be a while before lower lending rates stoke the economy.

    Therefore, hoping for an immediate revival in the economy is futile. The RBI has no magic wand to do this.

    Rather look for stocks that can outperform irrespective of the RBI policy.

    I believe the cement sector may be a good place to start.

    One of my recent recommendations from the sector is a typical Rebirth of India stock.

    And I won't be surprised if it repeats its 2002-2006 performance.

To know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.

For information on how to pick stocks that have the potential to deliver big returns, download our special report now!

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