Bourses continue to trade weak in late afternoon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade below neutral line in late afternoon session on account of profit booking by investors. Broader markets, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index, however, traded in green with gains of above a percent each. Traders remain concerned, as Petrol and diesel prices were hiked by 80 paise a litre each, taking the total increase in rates in the last two weeks to Rs 9.20 per litre. This is the 13th increase in prices since the ending of a four-and-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on March 22. Sector wise, automobile sector remained in focused, as domestic passenger vehicle retail sales in March declined by 4.87 per cent to 2,71,358 units, as compared to the same month last year. PV sales stood at 2,85,240 units in March 2021.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in green after a tech-driven rally on Wall Street. Trading was light with many regional markets including those in China closed for holidays. European markets were trading mostly in red with investors digesting the potential for more sanctions against Moscow, potentially leading to higher commodity prices and fueling inflation concerns.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60393.32, down by 218.42 points or 0.36% after trading in a range of 60227.36 and 60786.07. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.20%, while Small cap index was up by 1.53%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 2.51%, Utilities up by 1.97%, Power up by 1.86%, Industrials up by 1.77% and FMCG was up by 1.47%, while Bankex down by 0.47%, Realty down by 0.22% and TECK was down by 0.09% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 2.11%, Titan Company up by 1.38%, TCS up by 1.25%, Nestle up by 1.17% and NTPC up by 0.94%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 2.13%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.85%, Infosys down by 1.24%, Reliance Industries down by 1.19% and HDFC down by 1.16% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid a lower contribution from COVID-19 related drugs, credit rating agency, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report has showed that the Indian pharmaceutical market (IPM) delivered flattish year-on-year (yoy) growth in February 2022 against the strong 13.9% yoy growth reported in January 2022.

The report also highlighted flattish sales growth of the acute therapy segment compared to sub-chronic and chronic segments in February 2022. Ind-Ra noted that the acute therapy segment has been showing a robust performance since March 2021 (average growth at 22.7% yoy).

As per the report, post normalisation of the high growth months of April 2021 (51.5% growth) and May 2021 (47.8%), led by the lockdown related lower base last year and higher volume growth, the average IPM growth from June 2021 to February 2022 has been healthy (9.8% yoy). During February 2022, volumes declined by 7.3% yoy (January 2022: up 5.3% yoy), while price growth was 5.1% yoy (5.8% yoy) and new products launches were up 2.0% yoy (2.8% yoy).

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18016.55, down by 36.85 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 17961.10 and 18095.45. There were 31 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index, while 1 stock remain unchanged.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports up by 4.69%, Tata Motors up by 2.63%, Tata Consumer up by 2.30%, Eicher Motors up by 2.29% and ONGC up by 2.23%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 2.18%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.92%, Infosys down by 1.25%, HDFC down by 1.20% and Reliance Industries down by 1.18% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in green, Nikkei 225 surged 51.51 points or 0.19% to 27,787.98, Jakarta Composite soared 32.08 points or 0.45% to 7,148.30, KOSPI rose 1.30 points or 0.05% to 2,759.20 and Straits Times was up by 22.75 points or 0.67% to 3,439.72.

European markets were trading mostly in red, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 13.42 points or 0.18% to 7,545.50, France’s CAC decreased 12.28 points or 0.18% to 6,719.09. On the flip side, Germany’s DAX was up by 53.90 points or 0.37% to 14,572.06.