Benchmark indices continue lackluster trade

Indian bourses extended their losses and were trading with cut of over three percent each in  afternoon session as selling appeared in Bankex, Oil & Gas and Auto stocks with Sensex and Nifty tumbling by 1662 and 488 points respectively. Sentiments were downbeat with Moody's Investors Service stating that loans to retail customers, especially those to low-income borrowers, will remain most affected due to the shock caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Traders also took note of report that capital markets regulator Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi acknowledged the systemic risk concerns raised by the RBI and Financial Stability Board over a disconnect between markets and the real economy, but said that this is a global phenomenon also observed in India. On the global front, Asian markets were trading lower as a rout in global bond markets sent yields flying and spooked investors amid fears the heavy losses suffered could trigger distressed selling in other assets.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 49376.42, down by 1662.89 points or 3.26% after trading in a range of 49280.28 and 50400.31. There were 3 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 2.20%, while Small cap index was down by 1.26%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex down by 4.67%, Oil & Gas down by 2.89%, Auto down by 2.83%, Metal down by 2.61% and PSU was down by 2.57%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 0.48%, Dr. Reddys Lab up by 0.30% and Nestle was up by 0.23%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 5.54%, ICICI Bank down by 5.34%, Bajaj Finserv down by 5.30%, HDFC Bank down by 5.04% and Axis Bank was down by 5.01% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest data has showed that bank credit growth on a year-on-year basis improved to 6.2 percent in the December quarter (Q3FY21) from 5.8 percent in the previous three-month period. However, credit growth in Q3FY21 was lower when compared to 7.4 percent growth recorded a year ago.

According to the data, growth in credit by private sector banks decelerated considerably to 6.7 percent in the quarter ended December 2020 as against 13.1 percent a year ago. Advances growth in public sector banks improved to 6.5 percent in December 2020 quarter as against 3.7 percent in the same period of 2019. Aggregate deposits growth (y-o-y) of scheduled commercial banks increased to 11.1 percent in December 2020 quarter as against 10 percent a year ago. Annual growth in current, savings and term deposits of banks stood at 13 percent, 15.8 per cent and 8.2 percent.

The data further showed that higher growth in current account and savings account (CASA) deposits resulted in their higher share of 42.8 percent in total deposits as against 41.2 percent a year ago. All-India credit-deposit (C-D) ratio improved marginally to 72.5 percent in the reporting quarter from 72 per cent in the previous quarter.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14608.50, down by 488.85 points or 3.24% after trading in a range of 14585.25 and 14919.45. There were 1 stocks advancing against 49 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma was up by 0.08%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 5.53%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 5.47%, HDFC Bank down by 5.09%, Bajaj Finserv down by 5.04% and HDFC was down by 4.91% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 1,202.26 points or 3.99% to 28,966.01, Hang Seng decreased 890.75 points or 2.96% to 29,183.42, Taiwan Weighted dropped 498.38 points or 3.03% to 15,953.80, Jakarta Composite lost 97.67 points or 1.55% to 6,191.98, KOSPI fell 86.74 points or 2.80% to 3,012.95, Straits Times trembled 27.56 points or 0.93% to 2,945.98 and Shanghai Composite declined 65.49 points or 1.83% 3,519.56.