On Monday, share markets in India finished in red, marking a negative start to the week.
The BSE Sensex closed lower by 281 points to end at 33,034 while the broader NSE Nifty ended the day lower by 97 points to close at 10,225.
Among BSE sectoral indices, metal stocks fell the most by 1.9%, followed by consumer durables stocks 1.8%. Coal India and ONGC were among the top losers.
Top Stocks in Action Today
Idea Cellular share price is set to be in focus today after the company and Vodafone India said that they have separately agreed to sell their standalone tower businesses to ATC Telecom Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd for about $1.2 billion.
The two operators have about 20,000 towers. Vodafone and Idea are in the process of merging operations to create the largest mobile operator in the country. While Idea Cellular would get Rs 40 billion, Vodafone would get Rs 38.5 billion if the tower deal goes through prior to their merger.
Coal India share price is likely to be in focus today after the company reported close to 40% fall in its consolidated net profit to Rs 3.7 billion in the quarter ended September 30, 2017 as compared to Rs 6.1 billion in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. A key factor that drove the miss was that CIL made a provision of Rs 23 billion towards wage settlement in its employee costs. What also adversely affected profitability was that other income dropped sharply by 56% YoY.
India to be Third Largest Economy by 2028
According to a recent Bank of America Merrill Lynch report, India is likely to become world’s third largest economy by 2028 and overtake Japan in nominal gross domestic product (GDP).
According to the report, India is also well on track to cross France and the United Kingdom (UK) to emerge as the world’s fifth largest economy after Germany by 2019.
The report assumes the Indian economy will grow at 10% (in nominal US GDP) in the next 10 years, well ahead of Japan’s 1.6%, and will be driven by the services sector. At the same time, various structural factors will likely weigh on growth in China, Brazil and Russia
