Telecom stocks decline

Stocks extended gains and hit fresh intraday high in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 191.86 points or 0.51% at 37,727.52. The Nifty 50 index was up 30.05 points or 0.27% at 11,331.25. Telecom stocks declined.

A bout of volatility was seen in early trade as the key indices regained positive zone soon after erasing early gains. Key benchmark indices trimmed gains in morning trade. Stocks regained strength in mid-morning trade. Indices pared gains in early afternoon trade.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was off 0.32%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was off 0.3%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On the BSE, 1061 shares rose and 1541 shares fell. A total of 150 shares were unchanged.

Telecom stocks declined. Bharti Airtel (down 3.21%), Vodafone Idea (down 1.31%), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 1.7%) and Reliance Communications (down 4.69%) declined. MTNL (up 1.62%) rose.

Shares of Bharti Infratel fell 1.33%. Bharti Infratel is a provider of tower and related infrastructure and is a unit of Bharti Airtel.

TCS shed 0.74%. TCS announced that Digitate's cognitive automation solution, ignio, has been successfully deployed by Tata Steel Europe (TSE) as its AI platform for IT operations. TSE, a leading European steel producer, is currently on a digital transformation journey with innovation, customerfocus, and value chain excellence at its core. The announcement was made during market hours today, 13 March 2019.

Asian Granito India rose 4.98% after the company said it plans to raise Rs 90 crore through preferential warrants issue. The announcement was made during trading hours today, 13 March 2019.

On the macro front, industrial production and inflation data was released by the government after market hours yesterday, 12 March 2019. India's industrial production (base year 2011-12=100) rose at slower pace of 1.7% in January 2019, compared with 2.6% growth recorded in December 2018. The industrial production growth for December 2018 has been revised upwards from 2.4% increase reported provisionally.

The all-India general CPI inflation rose to 2.57% in February 2019 (new base 2012=100), compared with 1.97% in January 2019. The corresponding provisional inflation rate for rural area was 1.81% and urban area 3.43% in February 2019 as against 1.22% and 2.91% in January 2019. The core CPI inflation eased to 5.29% in February 2019 compared with 5.35% in January 2019.

Overseas, European stocks were trading with small gains as uncertainty prevailed on Britain's plan toleave the European Union. UK lawmakers once again rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal. Parliament will vote later Wednesday on whether to leave the EU with no deal and if that fails, another vote on Thursday to decide whether to extend the Brexit deadline.

Most Asian stocks were trading lower as investors awaited another make-or-break parliamentary vote on Brexit. US stocks closed mostly higher Tuesday, led by the health care and utilities sectors.

In US economic data, the consumer-price index rose 0.2% in February following three months of no change, the Labor Department said. Core prices, which strip out volatile changes in the cost of food an energy rose 0.1%. Year-over-year, overall inflation fell from growth of 1.6% in January to 1.5%, while annual core inflation fell from 2.2% to 2.1%.

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