Benchmarks extend opening losses in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made negative start on Monday amid muted trend in Asian peers. Markets extend their losses and are trading lower with cut of over half a percent each in early deals due to selling in Industrials, Power and Realty stocks. Investors are eyeing the both the CPI and WPI inflation for the month of May to be released later in the day. Some cautiousness came in as the GST Council, at its single-agenda meeting, decided to retain the GST on Covid-19 vaccines at 5 per cent. However, it temporarily slashed the tax rates on most supplies and also exempted drugs for treating the black fungus. Traders took note of the government data showing that the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) stood at 126.6 points in April this year. The IIP was at 54 points in April 2020 and 126.5 points in April 2019. As per the partial data, IIP growth works out to be 134 per cent in April 2021 over the same month last year, mainly due to the low base effect. Meanwhile, India, witnessing a downward trend in Covid cases, reported the lowest daily spike in infections since March 31 with 67,290 new cases in the last 24 hours.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading higher with marginal gains on a light day for the region with four major markets on holiday, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. Meanwhile, investors seem reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday for cues about global economic recovery. Markets in Taiwan, China and Hong Kong are closed for the Dragon Boat Festival. Back home, broadcasting and cable sector stocks were in focus as the TRAI released an amendment to interconnection regulations of 2017 which provides for a framework for technical compliance of conditional access system (CAS) and subscriber management system (SMS) for the broadcasting and cable sector. In scrip specific development, Lupin lost it received a warning letter from FDA for its Somerset facility in the United States.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 52184.63, down by 290.13 points or 0.55% after trading in a range of 51936.31 and 52542.66. 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 1.98%, while Small cap index was down by 1.34%.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.44% and TECK up by 0.21%, while Industrials down by 3.25%, Power down by 3.09%, Realty down by 2.42%, Utilities down by 2.15%, Capital Goods down by 1.74% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The few gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 1.13%, Reliance Industries up by 0.54% and TCS up by 0.35%. On the flip side, SBI down by 1.82%, HDFC down by 1.42%, NTPC down by 1.39%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.28% and ICICI Bank down by 1.20% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released an amendment to interconnection regulations of 2017 which provides for a framework for technical compliance of conditional access system (CAS) and subscriber management system (SMS) for the broadcasting and cable sector. The framework is incorporated as schedule IX in the Interconnection Regulations, 2017. The operationalisation and oversight of the framework shall be carried out throughout a testing and certification agency, which shall be prescribed by the authority later.

The TRAI said the technical framework is the first step to define an indigenous set of specifications in line with international standards, and it is expected to bring several important benefits to the television broadcasting sector as well as the consumers. It said a tightly synchronized working of the CAS and SMS, as specified by the framework will enable factual reporting of subscriber base etc.

This will reduce the revenue loss to stakeholders on account of erroneous subscription reporting. It added better assurance of due revenue, in turn, may encourage the stakeholders to invest for further improvement in quality of content and service thereby benefiting the end consumers. The technical framework will usher in better content security in the distribution value chain.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15687.90, down by 111.45 points or 0.71% after trading in a range of 15606.50 and 15791.90. There were 8 stocks advancing against 42 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Infosys up by 1.18%, Reliance Industries up by 0.71%, Tata Steel up by 0.57%, Divis Lab up by 0.56% and Wipro up by 0.47%. On the flip side, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 15.89%, Coal India down by 2.61%, Hindalco down by 2.56%, UPL down by 2.11% and SBI down by 2.00% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 164.40 points or 0.57 to 29,113.13, KOSPI rose 0.44 points or 0.01% to 3,249.76, Jakarta Composite was up by 2.36 points or 0.04% to 6,097.86, while Straits Times lost 2.55 points or 0.08% to 3,155.42.