Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks remained under a grip of bears on Wednesday. After a cautious start, markets traded lower during the trading session, as concerns about the Omicron variant of COVID-19 spooked investors. Eight more cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus were detected in Maharashtra on Tuesday, out of which seven were reported in Mumbai city. Domestic sentiments dampened as the Asian Development Bank for the second time in three months has scaled down India’s growth estimate for the fiscal year ending March 2022 due to supply chain issue of industries.

However, in the second half of the trading session, key indices staged some recovery, taking support with Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla’s statement that the Indian economy is rapidly recovering from the pandemic-induced downturn and is returning to its trajectory of rapid growth. He also said India's trade figures are promising and that the total foreign direct investment the country received in the current financial year stood at $81.72 billion (one billion is equal to Rs 100 crore), the highest ever.

But, in the last hour of the trade, markets witnessed sharp fall to end lower, as the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) stated that the urban unemployment rate spiked to the double-digit rate for the first time in 17 weeks, to be 10.09% for the week-ended December 12, pushing the country’s overall jobless rate to a nine-week high of 8.53%. Traders paid no heed towards the government data showing that India's merchandise exports jumped 27.16 per cent to $30.04 billion in November on the back of good performance by sectors like petroleum products, engineering goods and electronic items.

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in green ahead of a crucial Federal Reserve meeting, while political turmoil weighed on U.K. markets.  Asian markets ended mostly higher, after industrial output in China was up 3.8 percent on year in November, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday - exceeding expectations for an increase of 3.6 percent and up from 3.5 percent in October. The bureau also said that fixed asset investment climbed an annual 5.2 percent - missing forecasts for 5.4 percent and down from 6.1 percent in the previous month.

The BSE Sensex ended at 57788.03, down by 329.06 points or 0.57% after trading in a range of 57671.61 and 58218.25. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.59%, while Small cap index down by 0.35%. (Provisional)

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 0.50% and Capital Goods up by 0.09%, while Realty down by 1.78%, TECK down by 1.10%, IT down by 1.03%, Metal down by 1.02% and Utilities down by 1.01% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.78%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.50%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.06%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.90% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.55%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 2.99%, Bajaj Finserv down by 2.55%, Power Grid down by 1.95%, ITC down by 1.93% and TCS down by 1.40% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, amid sharp uptick in shipments, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has expressed optimism that India's merchandise export is set to touch an all-time high of $400 billion during the current financial year.

Commerce and Industry Minister further said that India's imports too are growing and thus providing opportunities to other countries to expand business and international trade with India. He said ‘India on its part is showing sharp economic recovery and various indicators are pointing to a bounce back in our work in our industry, manufacturing sector, agriculture, technology and also shaping up of preparing a platform for a decade of huge growth.’

Besides, Goyal said that India tried its best to meet all international commitments and supported countries through supply of vaccines, medical supplies, and masks, among others. Goyal stressed that India is ready to support every friendly country with vaccines, or medical supplies. He also invited investments from other countries to India.

The CNX Nifty ended at 17221.40, down by 103.50 points or 0.60% after trading in a range of 17192.20 and 17351.20. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 2.52%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.47%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.12%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.00% and Hero MotoCorp up by 0.94%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 3.09%, Bajaj Finserv down by 2.70%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 2.38%, ONGC down by 2.01% and ITC down by 1.99% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in green, France’s CAC increased 40.27 points or 0.58% to 6,935.58 and Germany’s DAX was up by 49.23 points or 0.32% to 15,502.79.  On the flip side, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 14.74 points or 0.2% to 7,203.90.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Wednesday even as global investors remained cautious about the potential impact of new Omicron variant and ahead of the key Fed decision. The US Fed is struggling with the highest levels of inflation and the central bank is widely expected to announce an acceleration of the tapering of its bond-buying program, which was put in place during the pandemic to prop up the US economy. Chinese shares declined amid a deepening property market slump, while signs of slowing Chinese growth and Sino-US tensions also kept market sentiment cautious. New data ranging from new home prices to investment and retail sales suggested slowing growth in the world's second-top economy. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Wednesday that China's retail sales growth slowed in November and missed expectations. Investment in manufacturing and real estate development grew for the first 11 months of the year from a year ago, but at a slower pace than the January to October period, the data showed. New home prices in China fell for the third month in a row in November, the biggest monthly decline since February 2015 as the downturn in Chinese property sector worsened under Beijing's clampdown.