Equity benchmarks continue to show sluggish trend

Mirroring weak global cues, key equity benchmarks continued to show a sluggish trend in morning session, with losses of around a percent. Traders were cautious with report stated that investments in the Indian capital markets through participatory notes (P-notes) dropped to Rs 87,979 crore as of March-end, with experts believing that foreign investors will continue to adopt a cautious stance. Traders remained pessimistic as foreign institutional investors (FII) net sold Indian shares worth Rs 713.7 crore -- a tenth straight day of outflow for the Street. Traders failed to get any sense of relief from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) Mission Chief for India Nada Choueiri’s statement that the successful macroeconomic management of the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a strong recovery of India’s economy because of which the country is in a better position to face the economic fallout of the current Ukrainian crisis.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red after comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggested the U.S. central bank would move aggressively to curb inflation. Powell said he saw merit in ‘front-end loading’ policy moves, including a 50 basis point rate hike at the May FOMC meeting. Back home, stocks related to fertilizer industry remained in watch as Crisil’s report stated that India's fertiliser subsidy is likely to touch an all-time high of Rs 1.65 lakh crore this financial year (FY23) against the budget estimate of Rs 1.05 lakh crore due to an unprecedented rise in the cost of raw materials and fertilisers globally.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57386.61, down by 525.07 points or 0.91% after trading in a range of 57244.83 and 57531.95. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.05%, while Small cap index was up by 0.29%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 0.34%, Capital Goods up by 0.28% and Industrials up by 0.25%, while Bankex down by 1.35%, Metal down by 1.16%, Auto down by 0.94%, Healthcare down by 0.90% and Realty down by 0.68% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HCL Technologies up by 1.67%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.51%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.40% and Wipro up by 0.05%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.11%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 2.08%, SBI down by 1.97%, Axis Bank down by 1.90% and Bajaj Finserv down by 1.65% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Niti Aayog has released a draft battery swapping policy under which all metropolitan cities with a population above 40 lakh will be prioritised for development of battery swapping network under the first phase. Further, it in its draft policy said all major cities such as state capitals, UT headquarters and cities with population above 5 lakh will be covered under the second phase, given the importance of the two-wheeler and three-wheeler vehicle segments in growing cities.

It stated vehicles with swappable batteries will be sold without a battery, providing the benefit of lower purchase costs to potential EV owners. It said any individual or entity is free to set up a battery swapping station at any location, provided that the specified technical, safety and performance standards are adhered to.
Considering the constraint of space in urban areas for setting up charging stations at scale, Finance Minister in her Budget speech 2022-23 had announced that the Centre would be introducing a battery swapping policy and interoperability standards in order to improve efficiency in the EV ecosystem.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17228.65, down by 163.95 points or 0.94% after trading in a range of 17196.05 and 17259.25. There were 8 stocks advancing against 42 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports &SEZ up by 2.87%, HCL Technologies up by 1.71%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.45%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.40% and ONGC up by 0.32%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 4.18%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 2.34%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 2.03%, Cipla down by 2.00% and SBI down by 1.92% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 459.94 points or 1.67% to 27,093.12, Taiwan Weighted dropped 122.20 points or 0.71% to 17,005.75, Hang Seng decreased 114.27 points or 0.55% to 20,567.95, Jakarta Composite lost 70.65 points or 0.97% to 7,205.54, KOSPI fell 21.49 points or 0.79% to 2,706.72 and Shanghai Composite declined 2.01 points or 0.07% to 3,077.80.

On the flip side, Straits Times advanced 2.70 points or 0.08% to 3,351.16.