Markets remain subdued in noon trade

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in red zone in noon session, with Sensex and Nifty trading below at 58600 and 17500 levels respectively. Sentiments got hurt with private report stating that the Finance Ministry’s internal projections for what real gross domestic growth in FY23 could be, is lower than the 8-8.5 percent given out in the 2021-22 Economic Survey. However, traders shrugged off Managing Director of IMF Kristalina Georgieva’s statement that the Union budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is a very 'thoughtful' policy agenda for India and puts a great deal of emphasis on innovation in research and development on human capital investment and digitalization. On the global front, Asian markets were trading higher as investors’ mood got lifted with optimism followed by some better than expected US earnings reports and on hawkish monetary policy announcements from the Bank of England and the European Central Bank.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58514.66, down by 273.36 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 58475.97 and 58943.62. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.39%, while Small cap index was down by 0.19%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.61%, Basic Materials up by 0.76%, Consumer Durables up by 0.40%, Utilities up by 0.32% and Power was up by 0.18%, while Realty down by 1.53%, Auto down by 1.00%, Bankex down by 0.95%, Energy down by 0.64%, Consumer Discretionary was down by 0.63% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 1.39%, Ultratech Cement up by 0.88%, Titan Co up by 0.43%, ITC up by 0.43% and Sun Pharma up by 0.41%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.52%, ICICI Bank down by 1.38%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.30%, Reliance Industries down by 0.96% and Axis Bank was down by 0.89% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy in its report has asked the government to explore new and innovative tools to deal with the issue of financial constrains in the renewable energy sector, including setting up of green banks and introduction of renewable finance obligation for financial institutions, among others. It said since Green Banks have emerged as an innovative tool for accelerating clean energy financing globally, the government should explore setting up of a green bank system which can address the persisting finance related challenges being faced by the renewable energy sector in the country.

Keeping in view that the overall debt requirement is large and reducing the cost of financing to the renewable energy developers is important, a parliamentary panel also suggested that the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) may explore the possibility of prescribing Renewable Finance Obligation on the lines of Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) for banks and financial institutions. It said the Renewable Finance Obligation will make them invest a specific percentage of their investment in the renewable energy sector.

It also suggested that the ministry should work proactively to make available and explore innovative financing mechanisms and alternative funding avenues like Infrastructure Development Fund (IDF), Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InVITs), Alternate Investment Funds, Green/Masala Bonds, crowdfunding etc for the renewable energy sector. It noted that under India's long term commitments, an additional investment of about Rs 17 lakh crore has been envisaged, which would include associated transmission costs. The country would need an annual investment of Rs 1.5 - 2 lakh crore in renewable energy sector, against which the estimated investment for the last few years have been in the range of Rs 75,000 crore only.

It also suggested that IREDA (Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency) should be given a special window for borrowing from the RBI at repo rate in line with other specialised financial institutions like NHB, SIDBI and NABARD to ensure availability of low-cost financial resources for the renewable energy sector. Besides, it suggested that the ministry should pursue the banks which provide funds to renewable energy sector to restructure the loans in such a way that the EMI is kept higher in peak season of revenue generation and lower in the off-season.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17491.95, down by 68.25 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 17480.30 and 17617.80. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 2.28%, ONGC up by 1.40%, JSW Steel up by 1.36%, Tata Steel up by 1.34% and Divi's Lab was up by 1.18%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.14%, Eicher Motors down by 1.90%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.52%, ICICI Bank down by 1.43% and Bajaj Auto was down by 1.35% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading higher; Nikkei 225 surged 198.68 points or 0.73% to 27,439.99, Jakarta Composite soared 24.13 points or 0.36% to 6,707.98, Hang Seng increased 786.93 points or 3.31% to 24,589.19, Straits Times advanced 8.34 points or 0.25% to 3,324.33 and KOSPI was up by 42.44 points or 1.57% to 2,750.26.