Bourses continue to trade choppy in late morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade choppy in late morning trade as caution prevailed among investors globally amid concerns about the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Gains in healthcare and capital goods shares were offset by losses in metal and PSU counters. Traders also remained cautious as the government’s total liabilities rose to Rs 125.71 lakh crore in the September quarter from Rs 120.91 lakh crore in the three months ended June, according to the latest public debt management report. The increase reflects a quarter-on-quarter increase of 3.97 per cent in the July-September period of 2021-22. Broader markets, however, were showing some strength as some respite came as ICRA said the Indian economy is likely to maintain a real GDP growth of 9 percent each in FY2022 and FY2023 amid uncertainty triggered by the Omicron variant of corona virus. The Indian economy grew at 8.4 per cent in the second quarter of the current fiscal, as against a growth of 20.1 per cent in the April-June quarter.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57862.53, down by 34.95 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 57721.47 and 58097.07. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.08%, while Small cap index was up by 0.34%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.18%, Capital Goods up by 0.35%, Telecom up by 0.25% and Industrials up by 0.14%, while Metal down by 1.26%, PSU down by 0.60%, Oil & Gas down by 0.56%, Basic Materials down by 0.46% and Energy down by 0.45% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 1.72%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.65%, Indusind Bank up by 1.24%, Titan Company up by 0.72% and Ultratech Cement up by 0.67%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.43%, ITC down by 1.02%, Power Grid Corporation down by 0.66%, HDFC Bank down by 0.59% and SBI down by 0.56% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the finance ministry in its latest public debt management report has said that the government's total liabilities (including liabilities under the 'Public Account') stood at Rs 125.71 lakh crore in the September quarter (Q2FY22), up 3.97 per cent from the previous quarter. The total liabilities of the government were Rs 120.91 lakh crore in the three months ended June (Q1FY22).

Report further indicated that in absolute terms, the total liabilities jumped to Rs 125,71,747 crore at the end of September 2021. At the end of June, the total liabilities stood at Rs 1,20,91,193 crore. Public debt accounted for 91.15 per cent of the total outstanding liabilities in the September quarter compared to 91.60 per cent at the end of June. Nearly 30.56 per cent of the outstanding dated securities had a residual maturity of less than 5 years. The ownership pattern showed the share of commercial banks at 37.82 per cent and that of insurance companies at 24.18 per cent in the September quarter.

As per the report, the yields on Government Securities hardened in the secondary market due to an increase in the supply of such securities during the September quarter. In the secondary market, trading activities were concentrated in the 3-7 year maturity bucket during the September quarter, mainly because of less trading observed in 10-year benchmark securities due to low float.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17219.95, down by 13.30 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 17180.95 and 17285.95. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Divi's Lab up by 1.69%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.68%, Sun Pharma up by 1.68%, Indusind Bank up by 1.35% and Cipla up by 1.04%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.46%, ONGC down by 1.40%, Coal India down by 1.38%, ITC down by 1.14% and Hindalco down by 1.08% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 162.28 points or 0.56% to 28,906.88, Hang Seng declined 201.93 points or 0.87% to 23,078.63, KOSPI fell 26.90 points or 0.89% to 2,993.34, Jakarta Composite lost 7.72 points or 0.12% to 6,590.62 and Shanghai Composite was down by 26.07 points or 0.72% to 3,604.04. On the other hand, Straits Times rose 9.78 points or 0.31% to 3,138.19 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 51.47 points or 0.28% to 18,248.28.