Domestic indices trade under pressure in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made flat opening on Friday. Soon, markets extended their losses and are trading lower with cut of over half a percent each in early deals amid weak global cues coupled with uncertainty surrounding the Omicron variant. India reported 14 fresh Omicron cases on Thursday, taking the tally of patients contracting the highly infections coronavirus variant in the country to 87. Selling in Consumer Durables, Auto and Consumer discretionary stocks also weighted down on the sentiments. Traders were concerned with the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s statement that the consumer sentiment index in November is far below the pre-pandemic levels though better than November last year, suggesting the economic recovery is excruciatingly slow and uninspiring. Continued foreign fund outflow dented sentiments in the markets. As per provisional data available on the NSE, Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 1,468.71 crore.

 On the global front, all the Asian markets are trading lower following the broadly negative cues overnight from Wall Street and as traders continued to weigh the likely impact of the monetary policy decisions of from the Fed, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England on the economy and financial markets. Traders were also concerned after several countries across the world announced stricter restrictions on movements to curb the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which is now spread to more than 77 countries.

Back home, banking stocks were in focus amid reports that banking services, especially at branches across the country, have been hit hard following the commencement of a two-day strike by about 900,000 employees to protest against privatisation of public sector banks. In scrip specific development, RateGain Travel & Technologies is set to make its debut on the bourses today. Besides, Escorts and and Vodafone Idea are the only stocks in the F&O ban period today.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57532.30, down by 368.84 points or 0.64% after trading in a range of 57523.25 and 58062.28. There were 5 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 1.22%, while Small cap index was down by 0.94%.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.49% and TECK up by 1.09%, while Consumer Durables down by 2.30%, Auto down by 2.20%, Consumer discretionary down by 1.66%, Realty down by 1.59%, Industrials down by 1.32% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 2.41%, HCL Technologies up by 1.25%, TCS up by 1.12%, Tech Mahindra up by 0.62% and Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 0.16%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 3.54%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.43%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.91%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.90% and Indusind Bank down by 1.77% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, union minister Jitendra Singh has said that artificial intelligence, as one of the frontier technologies, is shaping India's present and future economy. He added that the country has started seeing impact of artificial intelligence across healthcare, agriculture, education, governance and financial services. Singh said that innovation ecosystem in India is providing companies new opportunities to create value, evolve and grow.

He said the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the rules of the game for ever. He said ‘We have been experiencing disruption in business models across industries. Digitization has provided an impetus especially to the startup ecosystem in India and it is radically transforming India by catapulting grassroots level innovation’.

India is at the pivotal point with the technologies shaping up for the future like artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, block chain, green energy and quantum computing, and is getting ready to make one of the biggest technology transformations of the century. Singh said the Department of Science & Technology (DST) has made concerted efforts in cultivating and promoting scientific temperament amongst the masses and is leading the innovation drive in the country.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17142.00, down by 106.40 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 17138.55 and 17298.15. There were 6 stocks advancing against 44 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Infosys up by 2.41%, Wipro up by 1.97%, HCL Technologies up by 1.33%, TCS up by 1.08% and Tech Mahindra up by 0.58%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 3.51%, Tata Motors down by 3.37%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.39%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.91% and Hindustan Unilever down by 1.90% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets are trading in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 410.29 points or 1.41% to 28,656.03, Straits Times declined 7.89 points or 0.25% to 3,120.91, Hang Seng plunged 266.04 points or 1.13% to 23,209.46, Taiwan Weighted decreased 8.97 points or 0.05% to 17,776.77, KOSPI fell 6.50 points or 0.22% to 2,999.91, Jakarta Composite lost 27.80 points or 0.42% to 6,567.00 and Shanghai Composite was down by 33.25 points or 0.90% to 3,641.77.