Sensex, Nifty remain under pressure in late morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks remained under pressure in late morning session, impacted by negative cues from other Asian markets. Sentiments were pessimistic, amid a private report stating that the pandemic seems to have dented the prospects of beneficiaries hoping to enrol in minority schemes. While the fund utilisation under minority schemes had reached its peak in 2019-20, with the government spending Rs 6,575 crore, it has since declined.

Traders overlooked CBDT Chairman J B Mohapatra’s statement that the net direct tax collection has registered a whopping 49.02 per cent growth to over Rs 14.09 lakh crore in the 2021-22 fiscal as the country's economy bounced back after being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a high level meeting today with state chief ministers to review the Covid-19 situation in India.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after Singapore's industrial production increased at a softer pace in March. The data from the Economic Development Board showed that industrial output rose 3.4 percent year-on-year in March, after a 17.5 percent growth in February. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, industrial production rose 9.7 percent yearly in March, after a 16.6 percent increase in the preceding month.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 56903.03, down by 453.58 points or 0.79% after trading in a range of 56795.97 and 57079.03. There were 3 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.08%, while Small cap index was down by 1.16%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom down by 1.61%, Basic Materials down by 1.56%, Metal down by 1.55%, PSU down by 1.49% and IT down by 1.35%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The few gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Industries up by 1.20%, Asian Paints up by 0.04% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.01%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 5.36%, Bajaj Finserv down by 3.56%, ICICI Bank down by 2.04%, Wipro down by 2.03% and SBI down by 1.96% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) has made a case for duty-free import of coal, greater availability of railways rake to transport the dry fuel and different rate of diesel for captive generators for dealing with power supply issue amid summer. It would urge states and discoms not to differentiate against commercial consumers in power supply. This is critical because growth in industrial production remains muted despite the overall economic recovery.

Assocham has suggested key measures, including duty-free imports of coal along with increased availability of railway rakes for movement of coal and differential rate of diesel for captive generator sets for tackling challenges of power supply in several states, amidst unprecedented early onset of heatwave conditions in several parts of the country. While the Centre has allowed blending of imported coal to the extent of 10 per cent with the domestic coal, global supply constraints and a sharp rise in the prices in the international markets are making going difficult for power generating companies and discoms in the further chain of transmission.

Although the import duty on coal is 2.5 per cent at present, the industry body would urge scrapping the duty for now in view of the pressing situation. It stated that while in the medium to long term, the recently signed free trade agreement with Australia, the main source of imported coal for India would help, the issue of adequate coal supply needs to be handled upfront. In cases of power cuts by discoms, no extra burden should be imposed on the industrial consumers. Those who have the captive generating capacity should be supplied diesel at differentiated prices.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17046.80, down by 154.00 points or 0.90% after trading in a range of 17016.65 and 17110.70. There were 3 stocks advancing against 47 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Reliance Industries up by 1.22%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.74%, Asian Paints up by 0.01%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.00% and HDFC Bank up by 0.00%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 5.44%, Bajaj Finserv down by 3.56%, Hindalco down by 3.04%, SBI Life Insurance down by 2.28% and Tata Consumer Products down by 2.18% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 369.79 points or 1.38% to 26,330.32, Taiwan Weighted dropped 294.45 points or 1.77% to 16,350.34, Jakarta Composite lost 55.56 points or 0.77% to 7,176.59, KOSPI fell 34.94 points or 1.31% to 2,633.37 and Straits Times trembled 2.79 points or 0.08% to 3,319.26. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite gained 10.98 points or 0.38% to 2,897.41 and Hang Seng increased 18.19 points or 0.09% to 19,952.90.