Bourses trim losses in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks trimmed most of their losses in afternoon session, but continue to trade below the neutral lines with Sensex and Nifty trading below at 58,200 and 17,350 respectively. Traders were worried amid fresh scare over the possible severity of Omicron variant, after WHO warned it as a ‘very high’ global risk, with some evidence that it evades vaccine protection. Additional pressure came in as India's annual wholesale price-based inflation accelerated to 14.23% in November, its highest in at least 12 years, boosted by bigger hikes in prices of fuel and food. However, market trimmed some of its losses as traders got some support as NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant stated that the government will continue to push for greater reforms across sectors. Kant stated ‘India is determined to carry out reforms. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly lower as investors’ side lined ahead to the key Federal Reserve policy meeting, which is expected to glean insights on its stimulus tapering measures. Back home, losses in realty, auto and consumer durables shares pulled the headline indices lower, though gains in power and utilities shares lent some support.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58154.79, down by 128.63 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 57803.87 and 58230.07. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.69%, while Small cap index down by 0.05%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 1.20%, Utilities up by 0.73%, Capital Goods up by 0.60%, Oil & Gas up by 0.36% and IT was up by 0.28%, while Realty down by 1.19%, Auto down by 0.94%, Consumer Durables down by 0.89%, Consumer Discretionary down by 0.60%, Telecom was down by 0.55% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid up by 3.40%, Nestle up by 1.13%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.00%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 0.77% and ICICI Bank was up by 0.76%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.98%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.94%, ITC down by 1.66%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.37% and Mahindra & Mahindra was down by 1.26% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameswar Teli has said that the government has agreed to release 5 million barrels of crude oil from its strategic petroleum reserves in consultation with other major global energy consumers including the USA, People's Republic of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, in order to provide relief to citizens.

The minister has stated the domestic price of crude is linked to international benchmarks of crude price. He said these benchmarks get affected by many factors including supply and demand, futures’ trading, the impact of the covid scenario and geopolitical situation. Linear co-relation between pricing and any one of these factors in isolation is indeterminable.

He further said that the government has been consistently reviewing the high petroleum and diesel prices domestically. With a view to controlling inflationary pressures, government had reduced the 'central excise duty' on petrol and diesel by Rs 5/litre and Rs 10/litre respectively on November 3, 2021. It was followed by a reduction in VAT on fuel by many State Governments.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17319.80, down by 48.45 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 17225.80 and 17347.85. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Power Grid up by 3.52%, Nestle up by 1.25%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.11%, ICICI Bank up by 0.76% and Dr. Reddy's Lab was up by 0.64%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.14%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.98%, Tata Consumer Products down by 1.89%, ITC down by 1.79% and Bajaj Finserv was down by 1.52% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Jakarta Composite lost 54.17 points or 0.81% to 6,608.70, Shanghai Composite declined 22.53 points or 0.61% to 3,658.55, Hang Seng decreased 333.33 points or 1.39% to 23,621.25, Nikkei 225 slipped 207.85 points or 0.73% to 28,432.64, Taiwan Weighted dropped 168.23 points or 0.95% to 17,599.37 and KOSPI was down by 13.71 points or 0.46% to 2,987.95.

On the flip side; Straits Times was up by 4.64 points or 0.15% to 3,124.59.