Post Session: Quick Review

Bears continued to hold their tight grip over the Dalal Street on Monday, with both Sensex and Nifty ending in deep red. The start of the day was in red terrain, as Brent Crude surged to hit the $130 per barrel-mark in early trade, highest since 2008, amid the risk of a US and European ban on Russian oil. Sentiments got hit as Jayanth R Varma, who is a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has said the Russia-Ukraine conflict is likely to have adverse effects on both economic growth as well as inflation and policy makers must remain alert and ready to respond rapidly to the emerging situation.

Key indices remained lower during the trading session, on the back of negative cues from the global markets. Traders remain concerned as a private report lowered India’s economy growth forecast to 7.8 per cent for 2022 due to the nation’s exports being impacted by the Russia-Ukraine war and spiking oil prices causing ripple effects. It said rupee is likely to further depreciate against US dollar while soaring commodity prices will push inflation up. Some cautiousness came in as overseas investors withdrew as much as Rs 17,537 crore from the Indian markets in just three trading sessions of March as investors’ sentiment was dented by the uncertainty caused by the Russia-Ukraine war and rising crude oil prices.

Besides, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council in its next meeting may look at raising the lowest tax slab to 8 per cent, from 5 per cent, and prune the exemption list in the GST regime as it looks to increase revenues and do away with states' dependence on Centre for compensation. On the global front, European markets were trading lower. Asian markets ended in red, even after China's exports grew more than expected in January to February period. The figures from the General Administration of Customs revealed that exports increased 16.3 percent on a yearly basis, bigger than the expected growth of 15.0 percent. At the same time, imports advanced 15.5 percent, but slower than forecast of 16.5 percent.

The BSE Sensex ended at 52842.75, down by 1491.06 points or 2.74% after trading in a range of 52367.10 and 53203.87. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 2.25%, while Small cap index down by 2.30%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.68%, Telecom up by 1.43%, Oil & Gas up by 0.81% and TECK up by 0.25%, while Realty down by 5.31%, Bankex down by 4.59%, Auto down by 4.02%, Industrials down by 3.27% and Capital Goods down by 3.17% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.46%, HCL Tech. up by 1.38%, Tata Steel up by 1.12% and Infosys up by 0.93%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 7.63%, Axis Bank down by 6.70%, Maruti Suzuki down by 6.56%, Bajaj Finance down by 6.37% and Bajaj Finserv down by 6.27% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, underlining the importance of PM Gati Shakti initiative, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary has said Public-Private Partnership (PPP) would be the key driver of the Rs 100 lakh crore ambitious PM Gati Shakti initiative. He added that this national master plan for multi-modal connectivity aims to develop infrastructure to reduce logistic costs and boost the economy.

Observing that PPP has given a push to growth, Chaudhary said that various infrastructure projects have been completed through public-private partnerships. He also said that PM Gati Shakti is focused on the road, railway, civil aviation among others, adding that this ambitious project would be achieved through a public-private partnership.

Meanwhile, the PM Gati Shakti - National Master Plan was announced last year with an aim to break departmental silos and bring in more holistic and integrated planning and execution of projects with a view to addressing the issues of multi-modal and last-mile connectivities.

The CNX Nifty ended at 15863.15, down by 382.20 points or 2.35% after trading in a range of 15711.45 and 15944.60. There were 10 stocks advancing against 40 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 13.13%, Hindalco up by 6.16%, Coal India up by 4.25%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.32% and UPL up by 2.54%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 7.48%, Axis Bank down by 6.64%, Maruti Suzuki down by 6.60%, Britannia Inds down by 6.46% and Bajaj Finance down by 6.32% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 144.69 points or 2.07% to 6,842.45, France’s CAC decreased 244.42 points or 4.03% to 5,817.24 and Germany’s DAX was down by 571.09 points or 4.36% to 12,523.45.

Asian markets ended in red on Monday as concerns about slowing economic growth and inflationary pressures are hurting market sentiment amid the escalation of the Russian-Ukraine crisis over the weekend, resulting in more sanctions and threats of nuclear deployment.  Weakness also prevailed in the markets as Brent crude hit an intraday high of $139 a barrel, the highest since 2008, amid fears of a U.S. and European ban on Russian oil. Hong Kong stocks plunged to their lowest level in more than five years on concerns the war in Ukraine will worsen inflation. Japanese shares ended deep in the red as investors remained wary of the inflationary impact from the oil price rise.