Key indices remain volatile during late morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks remained volatile during late morning deals, with both Sensex and Nifty trading in red terrain, despite positive cues from other Asian markets. Domestic sentiments were negative, amid reports that the ongoing second COVID-19 wave is affecting private equity and venture capital investments in terms of the deal numbers witnessed in April. Besides, Retailers Association of India (RAI) said workers and businesses in the retail industry are in need of urgent support as the restrictions to combat the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has hit them hard. With the days of the lockdown continuing to extend in various parts of the country, RAI said it is getting increasingly difficult for retailers to retain employees and to keep their businesses afloat, and there is a need to inject capital into the industry.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, after export prices in South Korea were up 10.6 percent on year in April, the Bank of Korea said on Friday - after rising 5.9 percent in the previous month. Import prices spiked an annual 15.0 percent in April after climbing 9.0 percent a month earlier. Individually, export prices for agricultural and marine products fell 4.2 percent on year and manufactured products jumped 10.7 percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 48574.22, down by 116.58 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 48485.85 and 48898.93. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.17%, while Small cap index was down by 1.01%.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.55% and Consumer discretionary up by 0.07%, while Metal down by 4.63%, Realty down by 2.79%, Utilities down by 2.26%, Basic Materials down by 2.24% and PSU down by 2.15% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 9.04%, ITC up by 3.32%, Nestle up by 1.90%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.61% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab up by 0.46%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.87%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.14%, NTPC down by 1.99%, Indusind Bank down by 1.88% and Bajaj Finserv down by 1.83% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with a view to enabling a stable and orderly evolution of the yield curve, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to conduct the second tranche of Open Market Purchase of Government of India Securities under G-sec Acquisition Programme (G-SAP 1.0) on May 20. As announced in the RBI Governor's statement of May 5, the second tranche of G-sec purchase will involve buying back securities of Rs 35,000 crore. The first such auction of Rs 25,000 crore was held on April 15.

The Reserve Bank will purchase the Government securities maturing between November to March 2035. These securities bear coupon rate ranging from 5.85 per cent to 7.17 per cent. The securities will be bought through a multi-security auction using the multiple price method.

The Reserve Bank has reserved the right to decide on the quantum of purchase of individual securities as well as accept bids for less than the aggregate amount. The apex bank will either purchase marginally higher/lower than the aggregate amount due to rounding-off. It will also accept or reject any or all the bids either wholly or partially without assigning any reasons.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14636.50, down by 60.00 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 14617.95 and 14749.65. There were 13 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Asian Paints up by 9.01%, UPL up by 7.61%, ITC up by 3.54%, Nestle up by 2.24% and Britannia up by 2.19%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 6.52%, Tata Steel down by 4.16%, Tata Motors down by 3.94%, Grasim Industries down by 3.76% and Coal India down by 3.58% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 629.72 points or 2.29% to 28,077.73, Hang Seng jumped 263.03 points or 0.95% to 27,981.70, Taiwan Weighted soared 222.36 points or 1.42% to 15,892.46, KOSPI advanced 28.57 points or 0.92% to 3,150.68 and Shanghai Composite was up by 41.63 points or 1.21% to 3,471.17, while Straits Times fell 4.44 points or 0.14% to 3,118.82.