Sensex, Nifty continue to trade near neutral lines in late morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued their trade near neutral lines in late morning session, with both Sensex and Nifty trading in red terrain. Negative cues from other Asian markets impacted domestic sentiments. Traders were worried, amid reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) offloaded Indian equities to the tune of over Rs 5,689 crore in July so far as they continued to adopt a cautious stance in view of various domestic and global factors. During July 1-23, FPIs took out Rs 5,689.23 crore from equities, as per depositories data.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after the manufacturing sector in Japan continued to expand in July, albeit at a slower pace, the latest survey from Jibun Bank revealed on Monday with a manufacturing PMI score of 52.2. That's down from 52.4, although it remains above the boom-or- bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 52960.00, down by 15.80 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 52783.63 and 53103.42. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.23%, while Small cap index was up by 0.69%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.87%, Healthcare up by 0.75%, Basic Materials up by 0.70%, IT up by 0.56% and TECK up by 0.53%, while Energy down by 0.67%, Oil & Gas down by 0.43%, Auto down by 0.36%, Power down by 0.33% and Capital Goods down by 0.23% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Titan Co up by 1.67%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.34%, Infosys up by 1.26%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.02% and NTPC up by 0.89%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.12%, SBI down by 1.04%, Reliance Industries down by 0.82%, HDFC Bank down by 0.63% and HDFC down by 0.59% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said digitisation has provided an impetus to the startup ecosystem in India and IPOs will drive the country's startup revolution. Kant noted that among 17 economies, India has emerged as the second-fastest in digitisation. He said ‘IPOs will drive our start-up revolution. Indian start-ups will raise money in Indian markets from the Indian public’. He added ‘This is truly Aatmanirbhar Bharat. Digitization has provided an impetus to the start-up ecosystem in India’.

He noted in a large and diverse country like India, the ability to rapidly execute and scale up programmes to reach 1.3 billion citizens, in vernacular languages, is important. He said ‘Startups should leverage technology for social good. The pandemic has provided an opportunity for this’. According to Kant, the intersection of e-commerce and the internet has created opportunities for business. He said the development of world-class technology products needs inputs from AI, and added ‘our curriculum needs to be redesigned to produce world-class AI scientists and designers’.

Kant also noted that failure is an integral part of the startup movement and every parent and every investor in India need to understand this. He was quick to add that nowhere in the world would startups get the size and scale of data as they do in India. He observed ‘Data sets provide the opportunity to use AI and ML across a range of areas like health, agriculture and education’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15847.20, down by 8.85 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 15797.00 and 15893.35. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Titan Co up by 1.71%, Divi's Lab up by 1.43%, Britannia up by 1.37%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.35% and Eicher Motors up by 1.23%. On the flip side, JSW Steel down by 1.87%, Tata Motors down by 1.18%, SBI down by 1.04%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.02% and Reliance Industries down by 0.91% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 794.92 points or 2.91% to 26,527.06, Taiwan Weighted dropped 123.19 points or 0.7% to 17,449.73, Shanghai Composite declined 77.27 points or 2.18% to 3,473.13, KOSPI fell 20.36 points or 0.63% to 3,234.06, Straits Times trembled 17.02 points or 0.54% to 3,140.03. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite soared 8.49 points or 0.14% to 6,110.18 and Nikkei 225 surged 286.96 points or 1.04% to 27,834.96.