Sluggish trend continues on street

In line with Asian peers, Indian equity benchmarks continued their lackluster trade in afternoon session with Sensex and Nifty trading below their psychological levels of 57,300 and 17100, respectively. Sentiments were under pressure as ICRA projects fiscal deficit at a higher Rs 17.9 trillion, driven by the two major outlays intended to bolster confidence amongst households, namely free food grains under the PMGKAY scheme and an enhanced outgo for MGNREGA. Traders were also worried as Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 3,751.58 crore on Monday, exchange data showed. However, downfall remain capped as former Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya stated that the Indian economy has recovered 'handsomely' from the pandemic-induced disruptions, while expressing hope that the recovery will be sustained and the growth rate of 7 to 8 per cent will be restored.

On the global front; Asian markets were trading lower fueled by concerns over the US Federal Reserve's plans to hike interest rates and tensions in Ukraine. Back on street, in scrip specific developments, Hindustan Foods zoomed on inking pact to acquire 100% stake in Reckitt Benckiser Scholl India and Axis Bank surged on reporting around 3-fold jump in Q3 consolidated net profit

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57246.06, down by 245.45 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 56409.63 and 57626.95. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.37%, while Small cap index was up by 0.08%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.10%, PSU up by 1.54%, Power up by 1.48%, Utilities up by 1.33% and Bankex was up by 1.30%, while Energy down by 1.23%, IT down by 0.90%, Consumer Durables down by 0.64%, TECK down by 0.37%, Consumer Discretionary was down by 0.14% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 6.11%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.23%, SBI up by 3.18%, Indusind Bank up by 2.89% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.08%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 2.24%, Reliance Industries down by 1.99%, Titan Co down by 1.97%, Wipro down by 1.72% and HDFC Bank down by 1.58% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Former Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya has said that the Indian economy has recovered 'handsomely' from the pandemic-induced disruptions and expressed hope that the recovery will be sustained and the growth rate of 7 to 8 percent will be restored.

Panagariya suggested that the government must now signal its intention to wind down the fiscal deficit by cutting it by a half-to-one percentage point in 2022-23. He said due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fiscal deficit ballooned to 9.5 percent in the first pandemic year 2020-21. He added that the government aims to achieve a fiscal deficit of 6.8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the current financial year (2021-22).

Former Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman further stated that the dominant view among epidemiologists now is that with a large proportion of the population now having antibodies due to past infections from different variants of the virus or vaccination, there is now a high chance that the epidemic is about to enter the endemic phase. On rising inflationary trends, he observed that inflation is a concern in the United States, where it has reached 7 percent, the highest in the last 40 years, but not in India. In India, he pointed out that it has remained within the target range of 2 to 6 percent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17097.45, down by 51.65 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 16836.80 and 17201.45. There were 28 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 6.15%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.18%, SBI up by 3.08%, Indusind Bank up by 2.67% and Hero MotoCorp up by 2.02%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 2.26%, Titan Co down by 2.01%, Reliance Industries down by 1.98%, Wipro down by 1.71% and HDFC down by 1.57% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading lower; KOSPI fell 71.61 points or 2.56% to 2,720.39, Hang Seng decreased 395.00 points or 1.6% to 24,261.46, Shanghai Composite declined 65.30 points or 1.85% to 3,458.81, Straits Times trembled 44.39 points or 1.35% to 3,238.96, Jakarta Composite lost 97.86 points or 1.47% to 6,557.31, Nikkei 225 slipped 457.03 points or 1.66% to 27,131.34 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 287.92 points or 1.6% to 17,701.12.