Key gauges remain in red in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in red terrain in morning deals, as index-heavyweights Indusind Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank witnessed intense selling pressure. Sentiments remained down-beat with rating agency Moody's statement that India's fiscal deficit projections are higher than expected and slower consolidation will constrain its fiscal strength over the medium term. It also expects India's nominal GDP growth to rise to closer to 17 percent in fiscal 2021, higher than 14.4 percent projected in the Budget. Traders also took a note of Commerce secretary Anup Wadhawan’s statement that negotiations over the India-US mini trade deal are ongoing and contentious issues have largely been addressed. Besides, the Finance Ministry has released the 14th installment of Rs 6,000 crore to states to meet the GST compensation shortfall, taking the total amount of fund released so far to Rs 84,000 crore. Till now, 76 per cent of the total estimated GST compensation shortfall has been released to states and 3 UTs. Out of this, an amount of Rs 76,616.16 crore has been released to 23 states and Rs 7,383.84 crore to the 3 UTs with Legislative Assembly (Delhi, J&K, Puducherry). On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, following the lackluster cues from Wall Street as the release of some upbeat U.S. economic data raised concerns lawmakers will feel less pressure to provide additional stimulus. Investors also turned cautious as they digested local corporate earnings results.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 50077.26, down by 178.49 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 49995.68 and 50250.17. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.94%, while Small cap index up by 1.02%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 2.18%, Oil & Gas up by 1.57%, Power up by 1.43%, Consumer Discretionary up by 1.22% and Metal up by 1.22%, while Bankex down by 1.35%, Consumer Durables down by 0.46%, Telecom down by 0.29%, TECK down by 0.16% and IT down by 0.06% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 6.85%, ONGC up by 3.97%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.48%, ITC up by 1.01% and Sun Pharma up by 0.95%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 2.77%, ICICI Bank down by 1.85%, HDFC Bank down by 1.63%, Titan Company down by 1.54% and Asian Paints down by 1.46% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Global airlines body -- International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said Passenger traffic at airports in tier 2 and 3 cities of the India is higher than pre-COVID levels. Country director of IATA -- Amitabh Khosla said ‘In domestic, we have seen a strong expansion in new destinations and the deployment of new flights. Unused and under utilised airports in India are starting to see additional passenger activity.’

India resumed its scheduled domestic passenger flights on May 25, 2020 after keeping them suspended for a period of two months due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown. Khosla said ‘airline networks themselves are in the state of transition. Post restart, we have seen a growing number of tier-2 and tier-3 cities where the traffic at the airports is higher than it was during the pre-COVID levels.’

The IATA has around 290 airlines as its members. Khosla said airlines are expected to get one-third of the revenues from air cargo this year as compared to 12 per cent in 2019. He mentioned while global passenger traffic is expected to come to pre-pandemic level only in 2024, the air cargo traffic is expected to reach pre-COVID level by March 2020.

Schedule international passenger flights have been suspended in India since March 23, 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, special international flights have been operating since May last year under Vande Bharat Mission and air bubble arrangements found with various countries.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14750.90, down by 39.05 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 14723.25 and 14794.60. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 6.93%, ONGC up by 3.80%, Hindalco up by 3.36%, GAIL India up by 2.99% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.94%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 2.56%, ICICI Bank down by 1.76%, Titan Company down by 1.70%, HDFC Bank down by 1.57% and Asian Paints down by 1.45% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 425.04 points or 1.45% to 28,882.42, Nikkei 225 slipped 272.79 points or 0.95% to 28,373.71, Taiwan Weighted dropped 73.45 points or 0.47% to 15,697.87, KOSPI fell 59.26 points or 1.89% to 3,070.42, Shanghai Composite declined 35.86 points or 1.02% to 3,481.45 and Straits Times trembled 26.75 points or 0.91% to 2,900.72.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite soared 38.04 points or 0.63% to 6,115.79.