Sensex, Nifty remain lower in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks continued their negative trade in late morning session, with both Sensex and Nifty trading in red terrain, despite positive cues from other Asian markets. Traders got cautious, after Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said that all COVID-related liquidity relief measures extended by the central bank have come with a sunset date and would be withdrawn in due course. Meanwhile, a parliamentary panel suggested that the government should extend the period of repayment of loans under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for the MSME sector. The Parliamentary standing committee on industry has also asked the government to digitise the GST system to ensure paperless refund of claims.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, after Taiwan's export orders increased more than expected in February. The data from the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed that export orders rose 21.1 percent year-on-year in February.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57038.87, down by 253.62 points or 0.44% after trading in a range of 56930.30 and 57340.42. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.02%, while Small cap index was down by 0.33%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.09%, Energy up by 1.02%, Oil & Gas up by 0.97%, TECK up by 0.87% and Telecom up by 0.25%, while Realty down by 2.25%, Consumer Durables down by 1.95%, FMCG down by 1.87%, Bankex down by 1.44% and Consumer discretionary down by 1.28% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tech Mahindra up by 2.05%, Reliance Industries up by 1.53%, Infosys up by 1.05%, TCS up by 1.01% and Power Grid up by 1.00%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 3.58%, Nestle down by 3.04%, Axis Bank down by 2.37%, SBI down by 2.16% and Asian Paints down by 1.77% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das has said with the country's foreign exchange reserves at $677 billion, it is comfortably placed to deal with any effect of spillover or any challenge with regard to financing current account deficit (CAD). He noted that over the last three years, the country's foreign exchange reserves have surged by $270 billion. He said ‘as per the latest data, the foreign exchange reserves are $622 billion. Other than that, a lot of forex, amounting to $55 billion, are being held in our forward assets, which will mature from time to time every month.’

To a suggestion of using a small portion of the reserves to finance requirements of the economy, the governor said it was not advisable. They (using reserves) are not in the medium-term, forget long-term, interest of any government, not just for India. Talking on the impact of recent rate actions by major central banks, he said there could be some spillover effects but RBI is confident of maintaining stability of the Indian currency.

Das further said the Indian economy is better placed and on the external front also the country is doing well. He said ‘but, we are living in an uncertain world and there is no reason for complacency. We have to be watchful and we are monitoring very closely.’ The RBI is also monitoring the crude and commodity prices and the volatility very closely.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17038.25, down by 79.35 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 17006.30 and 17143.15. There were 12 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 2.46%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.09%, Indian Oil Corp. up by 1.57%, Reliance Industries up by 1.52% and Power Grid up by 1.02%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 3.59%, Nestle down by 3.10%, Britannia down by 2.94%, Axis Bank down by 2.14% and SBI down by 2.11% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 381.54 points or 1.42% to 27,208.97, Hang Seng increased 239.99 points or 1.13% to 21,461.33, Jakarta Composite soared 24.91 points or 0.36% to 6,980.09, KOSPI rose 15.92 points or 0.59% to 2,701.97 and Shanghai Composite gained 4.41 points or 0.14% to 3,258.10. On the flip side, Straits Times trembled 5.39 points or 0.16% to 3,350.12 and Taiwan Weighted dropped 42.10 points or 0.24% to 17,518.26.