Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended in red terrain on Monday’s trading session with notable losses. After a negative start, key indices remained lower for the whole trading session. Traders remained concerned as the Reserve Bank data showed that in the steepest weekly fall ever, India's forex reserves slid by $11.173 billion to $606.475 billion as the currency came under pressure due to geopolitical developments.

Markets staged recovery in noon deals but failed to hold it in the last hour of the trade and finally ended near their intraday low points. Adding more pessimism among market participants, Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj warned that FY23 was unlikely to see a rate of growth in tax collections similar to that in FY22. Market participants failed to take any sense of relief as preliminary data of the commerce ministry showed that India’s exports grew by 37.57 per cent to $9.32 billion during April 1-7.

Traders got cautious, amid a private report stating that India's retail inflation likely sped up to a 16-month high of 6.35% in March, well above the Reserve Bank of India's upper tolerance band for a third straight month, in part due to a sustained rise in food prices. Adding more worries, the US government said that India’s proposed data localisation requirements under which firms need to store data within India “will serve as significant barriers to digital trade” between the two countries.

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in red. Asian markets settled lower on Monday, after China's consumer price inflation accelerated more than expected in March and producer price inflation eased further. The official data showed that consumer price inflation rose to 1.5 percent in March from 0.9 percent in February, the National Bureau of Statistics reported.

The BSE Sensex ended at 58964.57, down by 482.61 points or 0.81% after trading in a range of 58894.40 and 59355.76. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.41%, while Small cap index up by 0.38%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 5.18%, Utilities up by 5.09%, Oil & Gas up by 2.38%, Energy up by 1.73% and Realty up by 1.07%, while IT down by 1.46%, TECK down by 1.37%, Capital Goods down by 1.09%, Telecom down by 0.60% and Bankex down by 0.36% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 0.76%, NTPC up by 0.69%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.28%, TCS up by 0.26% and Ultratech Cement up by 0.16%. On the flip side, Larsen & Toubro down by 2.72%, HCL Tech. down by 2.70%, Infosys down by 2.67%, Wipro down by 2.16% and Asian Paints down by 1.70% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, with an aim of creating an innovation culture and entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country, The Union Cabinet has approved continuation of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), till March 2023. This will be done by AIM via its various programs.

The objectives of the AIM are to create and promote an ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship across the country via interventions at school, university, research institutions, MSME and industry levels. The AIM has focused on both infrastructure creation and institution building. As evident from these examples, the AIM has worked on integrating innovation ecosystem both nationally and globally.

Over the past years, the AIM has worked to provide an institutional mechanism to integrate innovation activities across the country. With the cabinet’s approval to continue, AIM assumes an even greater responsibility to create an inclusive innovation ecosystem where engaging in innovation and entrepreneurship get increasingly easier.

The CNX Nifty ended at 17674.95, down by 109.40 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 17650.95 and 17779.05. There were 19 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Grasim Industries up by 2.76%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.82%, JSW Steel up by 1.43%, Cipla up by 1.37% and UPL up by 1.25%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 2.73%, Larsen & Toubro down by 2.69%, Infosys down by 2.65%, Wipro down by 2.15% and SBI Life Insurance down by 1.55% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 34.38 points or 0.45% to 7,635.18 and Germany’s DAX was down by 116.14 points or 0.81% to 14,167.53. On the other hands, France’s CAC was up by 7.79 points or 0.12% to 6,556.01.

Asian markets settled lower on Monday as concerns about ongoing war in Ukraine and the extended lockdown in Shanghai due to the worsening coronavirus outbreak weighed on market sentiments. Meanwhile, investors are looked ahead to the ECB policy meeting and the release of US inflation data for additional clues about the interest rate outlook. Chinese shares declined as the country grapples with the Covid-19 outbreak, while the fast pace of China's factory-gate and consumer prices also weighed on risk appetite. Data showed that China's producer price index increased 8.3% year-on-year, easing from 8.8% growth in February. While, the consumer price index inched up 1.5% year-on-year, the fastest pace in three months. Further, Japanese stocks fell after Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced a ban on Russia coal imports, a move that could accelerate the transition to renewable energy and the restarting of nuclear plants.