Bears dominate Dalal Street

Indian equity benchmarks continued to witness selling pressure in late morning session, with both Sensex and Nifty trading in deep red. Negative cues from other Asian markets impacted domestic sentiments. Traders remained worried, as dues on the listing fees against a company are 'regulatory dues' in nature and cannot be recovered under 'operational debt' through insolvency proceedings, said the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) while dismissing an appeal by stock exchange BSE.

Besides, a parliamentary panel has expressed concern over delay in disposal of pensioners’ grievances beyond the stipulated time limit of 60 days, and asked the Centre to constitute social audit panels to identify core complaints prone areas and streamline their systems.

On the global front, all Asian markets were trading in red, after China cut its benchmark loan prime rate for the first time in 20 months. The one-year loan prime rate was lowered to 3.80 percent from 3.85 percent. At the same time, the five-year LPR was maintained at 4.65 percent. The one-year and five-year loan prime rates were last reduced in April 2020. The one-year loan prime rate was cut by 20 basis points and five-year rate by 10 basis points in April 2020.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 55562.26, down by 1449.48 points or 2.54% after trading in a range of 55556.23 and 56538.15. There were 2 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 3.57%, while Small cap index was down by 3.39%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 4.95%, Industrials down by 3.59%, Bankex down by 3.56%, Capital Goods down by 3.54% and Metal down by 3.44%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 0.37% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.21%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 5.27%, Indusind Bank down by 4.38%, Bajaj Finserv down by 4.34%, Axis Bank down by 4.09% and Tata Steel down by 3.94% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the ministry of power said that it has invested Rs 35,628.6 crore in infrastructure development up till November in this Financial Year (FY) 2021-22. For the Financial Year 2021-22 the target for Capital Expenditure (Capex) of the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) of the Ministry of Power is Rs 50,690.52 crore.

During FY 2020-21, power sector CPSEs incurred a CAPEX of Rs 22,127 crore till the month of November which was 49.3 per cent of the total expenditure for that FY.  The ministry said ‘Thus, the CAPEX performance of the Ministry in absolute as well as relative terms is better compared to the previous year. In absolute terms, it has shown a growth of 45% over last year's performance.’

Even in the schemes for infrastructure development, the ministry has been making good progress. It has spent Rs 1593.72 crore in IPDS, Rs 1007.51 crore in DDUGJY and Rs 890 crore in Transmission Development schemes for the North-Eastern region. It added the progress of the schemes and projects is being monitored on weekly basis by the Secretary, Ministry of Power. Through regular monitoring and coordination with other ministries and state governments, Power Ministry is making rapid strides in infrastructure development.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16548.30, down by 436.90 points or 2.57% after trading in a range of 16544.15 and 16840.10. There were 3 stocks advancing against 47 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 2.41%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.22% and Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 0.19%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 5.28%, Hero MotoCorp down by 4.79%, Tata Motors down by 4.42%, Indusind Bank down by 4.35% and Bajaj Finserv down by 4.35% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 604.48 points or 2.12% to 27,941.20, Straits Times fell 31.93 points or 1.03% to 3,079.70, Hang Seng lost 334.13 points or 1.44% to 22,858.50, Taiwan Weighted declined 119.96 points or 0.67% to 17,692.63, KOSPI plunged 46.06 points or 1.53% to 2,971.67, Jakarta Composite dropped 38.22 points or 0.58% to 6,563.71 and Shanghai Composite was down by 27.15 points or 0.75% to 3,605.21.