Sensex, Nifty trade in red during late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks were witnessing volatility in late morning session, with both Sensex and Nifty currently trading in red terrain, despite positive cues from other Asian markets. Traders got worried as the World Trade Organization (WTO) has downgraded its forecast for global GDP growth in 2022 to 2.8% from the previously expected 4.1%. Adding more worries over the street, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran said that the volatility in global crude oil prices due to the war in Europe and the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed’s) expected tapering and increase in interest rates are the two strong headwinds the Indian economy faces.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, after China's exports grew more than expected and imports logged an unexpected fall in March. Exports grew 14.7 percent on a yearly basis in March, faster than the expected growth of 13.0 percent. Meanwhile, imports dropped 0.1 percent from the last year, confounding expectations for an increase of 8.0 percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58522.34, down by 54.03 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 58426.00 and 59003.82. There were 17 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.13%, while Small cap index was up by 0.52%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.84%, Oil & Gas up by 0.74%, Energy up by 0.73%, Basic Materials up by 0.66% and PSU up by 0.63%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.36%, Auto down by 0.36%, Consumer discretionary down by 0.16%, Telecom down by 0.15% and Bankex down by 0.06% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 1.25%, NTPC up by 1.21%, HCL Tech. up by 0.86%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.83% and Indusind Bank up by 0.80%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.69%, Titan Co down by 1.52%, Power Grid down by 1.48%, HDFC down by 1.39% and HDFC Bank down by 1.35% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, continuing its trend to remain above the Reserve Bank of India’s upper tolerance level, retail inflation soared to a 17-month high of 6.95 per cent in March 2022 against 6.07 per cent in February 2022 and 5.52 per cent in March 2021. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation rose mainly on account of rising prices of essential food items like ‘oils and fats’, vegetables and protein rich items such as ‘meat and fish’. This is the third consecutive month that the inflation remained above the 6 per cent mark. The previous high at 7.61 per cent was recorded in October 2020. RBI’s tolerance limit of retail inflation is 4 per cent with a 2 per cent margin on either side.

The National Statistical Office (NSO) under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in its data has showed that the Rural CPI (General) in March 2022 stood at 7.66 per cent as against 6.38 per cent in February. The Urban CPI (General) stood at 6.12 per cent in March as against 5.75 per cent in February. The index value for Rural, Urban and Combined CPI (General) stood at 168.7, 166.5 and 167.7 respectively, in March 2022.

As per the data, the inflation in the food basket shot up to 7.68 per cent in March 2022 from 5.85 per cent in the preceding month. In vegetables, inflation quickened to 11.64 per cent in March while in ‘meat and fish’ the rate of price rise stood at 9.63 compared to February 2022. Inflation in ‘oils and fats’ in March soared to 18.79 per cent as the geopolitical crisis due to the Russia-Ukraine war pushed edible oil prices higher. Ukraine is a major exporter of sunflower oil. However, inflation in the ‘fuel and light’ category was lower at 7.52 per cent in March from 8.73 per cent in the preceding month.

The Price data are collected from selected 1114 urban Markets and 1181 villages covering all States/UTs through personal visits by field staff of Field Operations Division of NSO, MoSPI on a weekly roster. During the month of March 2022, NSO collected prices from 99.9% villages and 98.3% urban Markets while the Market-wise prices reported therein were 90.2% for rural and 93.2% for urban.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17526.00, down by 4.30 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 17493.75 and 17663.65. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 2.78%, Apollo Hospital Ent. up by 2.24%, UPL up by 2.16%, Coal India up by 1.80% and NTPC up by 1.44%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.66%, Titan Co down by 1.54%, Power Grid down by 1.44%, HDFC down by 1.35% and HDFC Bank down by 1.30% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 429.45 points or 1.63% to 26,764.43, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 289.08 points or 1.7% to 17,279.99, KOSPI rose 40.99 points or 1.54% to 2,707.75, Hang Seng increased 33.85 points or 0.16% to 21,352.98, Jakarta Composite soared 23.02 points or 0.32% to 7,237.80 and Straits Times advanced 21.46 points or 0.64% to 3,351.71. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 14.19 points or 0.44% to 3,199.14.