Benchmarks trade lower in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made cautious start on Monday tracking weakness in global peers. Markets are trading lower with marginal cut in early deals due to selling in IT, TECK and Auto stocks. Fresh Omicron-based Covid-19 cases emerge in India kept sentiments in the market cautious. Some cautiousness also came in amid reports about continues foreign fund outflow. The exchange data showed that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) remained net sellers for Rs 3356.17 crore in the Indian markets. Traders also remained on sidelines ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting which will begin its three-day bi-monthly deliberations today. Traders may take note of report that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government will bring a well consulted cryptocurrency Bill.

On the global front, Asian markets traded mixed following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday, as concerns about the spread of the new coronavirus Omicron variant led to a cautious mood in the markets. The much weaker-than-expected U.S. job growth in November also raised some concerns the Federal Reserve is not expected to deviate from accelerating the tapering of its asset purchases. Back home, NBFCs stocks were in focus as India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) said tightening of norms may increase non-banking finance companies' (NBFCs) headline non-performing advances (NPA) by around one third. In scrip specific development, Shares of Eris Lifesciences surged after the company formed a joint venture (JV) with Mumbai-based MJ Biopharm to enter the insulin segment.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57577.07, down by 119.39 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 57342.84 and 57781.46. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.11%, while Small cap index was by 0.06%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.38%, Capital Goods up by 0.95%, Basic Materials up by 0.61%, Metal up by 0.50%, Industrials up by 0.48%, while IT down by 0.84%, TECK down by 0.76%, Auto down by 0.71%, Oil & Gas down by 0.46%, Healthcare down by 0.36% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 0.94%, Tata Steel up by 0.90%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.57%, HDFC up by 0.55% and Ultratech Cement up by 0.48%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.80%, Indusind Bank down by 1.46%, Infosys down by 1.18%, HCL Technologies down by 1.07% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.92% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has said that the US has once again emerged as the largest trading partner of India with bilateral merchandise trade of $67.41 billion during the April-October period this fiscal. Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Anupriya Patel has said the US has been the largest trading partner of India with respect to merchandise trade since 2018-19, except in 2020-21, when trade with America declined marginally on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.

She said ‘In the current 2021-22 (April- October), the US has once again become the largest trading partner with bilateral merchandise trade of $67.41 billion, accounting for 11.98 per cent of India’s total merchandise trade’. She also said that India’s bilateral trade with Australia has increased to $13.88 billion in 2021, from $7.48 billion in the corresponding period of 2020.

Similarly, the bilateral trade with UAE has grown to $49.06 billion in 2021, from $29.48 billion in 2020 for the same period. He added ‘The bilateral trade with Belgium has also grown to $13.70 in 2021, from $7.63 billion in 2020 for the same period’. Separately, Patel said the share of export of goods and services in GDP has increased to 18.7 per cent during 2020-21, over 18.4 per cent in 2019-20, and 21.7 per cent in 2021-22 (April-September) over 19.4 per cent in 2020-21 (April-September).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17154.45, down by 42.25 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 17094.60 and 17216.75. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were JSW Steel up by 2.04%, Hindalco up by 1.57%, Tata Steel up by 1.18%, Larsen & Toubro up by 0.97% and Adani Ports & SEZ up by 0.73%. On the flip side, Coal India down by 5.95%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.98%, Indusind Bank down by 1.56%, HCL Technologies down by 1.23% and Infosys down by 1.20% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Straits Times rose 27.09 points or 0.87% to 3,129.02, Taiwan Weighted added 20.43 points or 0.12% to 17,717.57, Jakarta Composite advanced 40.34 points or 0.62% to 6,578.85 and Shanghai Composite was up by 13.49 points or 0.37% to 3,620.92. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 fell 127.56 points or 0.46% to 27,902.01, Hang Seng declined 320.29 points or 1.35% to 23,446.40 and KOSPI was down by 0.63 points or 0.02% to 2,967.70.