Benchmarks extend losses in afternoon session

Indian bourses extended their losses and were trading with cut of over one and half a percent each in afternoon session as selling appeared in telecom, realty and auto stocks with Sensex and Nifty tumbling by 777.81 and 229.90 points, respectively. Surging Covid-19 cases across the country, rising commodity prices and surging bond yields have punctured the market sentiments. Traders ignored that Fitch Ratings in its latest report revised India's Gross domestic product (GDP) growth estimate to 12.8 percent for the next fiscal year beginning April 1 from its previous estimate of 11 percent. It also said that India's recovery from the depths of the lockdown-induced recession in 2020 (calendar year) has been swifter than expected. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as a selloff in Chinese technology shares due to concerns they will be de-listed from U.S. bourses and worries about a semiconductor shortage rattled some investors. Back on street, the overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 2239:504; while 163 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 48402.50, down by 777.81 points or 1.58% after trading in a range of 48304.82 and 49247.95. There were 1 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 2.52%, while Small cap index was down by 2.39%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom down by 3.59%, Realty down by 3.14%, Auto down by 2.82%, Power down by 2.81% and PSU down by 2.73%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The only gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 0.63%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.57%, Bharti Airtel down by 3.56%, SBI down by 3.51%, Axis Bank down by 3.02% and Ultratech Cement was down by 2.73% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that India enjoys an investment grade rating and she does not see a rating downgrade because of higher spending. She cited low inflation, higher GDP growth, record foreign investment and lower fiscal deficit to defend her government's handling of the economy.

Sitharaman stated that the measures taken in response to the 2008 global financial crisis by the UPA led to high inflation and 'taper tantrums’. She also said average GDP growth between 2014 to 2019 was 7.5 percent as against 6.7 percent during 2009 to 2014 under UPA. Similarly, she said consumer price inflation was 10.3 percent under five years of UPA rule, while during 2014-19 it was 4.8 percent.

The minister further indicated that fiscal deficit too has been contained at 3.65 percent of the GDP during 2014-19 as compared to 5.3 percent in the previous five years and current account deficit has also improved from (-)3.34 percent to (-)1.43 percent. She noted that foreign exchange reserves have grown from $303 billion in 2014 to $411.9 billion and NPAs or bad debt declined to Rs 8.99 lakh crore as of March 2020.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14319.50, down by 229.90 points or 1.58% after trading in a range of 14285.00 and 14575.60. There were 1 stocks advancing against 49 stocks declining on the index.

The only gainers on Nifty were Larsen & Toubro up by 0.53%. On the flip side, Indian Oil Corporation down by 3.81%, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.65%, Bharti Airtel down by 3.47%, Tata Motors down by 3.46% and SBI was down by 3.40% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Taiwan Weighted strengthened 28.02 points or 0.17% to 16,060.14, KOSPI rose 11.98 points or 0.4% to 3,008.33, Nikkei 225 surged 324.36 points or 1.14% to 28,729.88 and Straits Times was up by 9.40 points or 0.3% to 3,142.71. On the flip side, Hang Seng decreased 68.00 points or 0.24% to 27,850.14, Shanghai Composite declined 7.13 points or 0.21% to 3,359.93 and Jakarta Composite was down by 91.52 points or 1.49% to 6,064.62.