Bears hold tight grip over Dalal Street

Bears were holding a tight grip over the Dalal Street in late morning deals, with both Sensex and Nifty trading near their intraday low points, on the back of negative cues from other Asian markets. Traders got cautious, amid a private report stating that India's central bank hiked its key lending rate in a surprise move fearing 'shocker' inflation numbers for April, adding the ultimate aim is to reverse its pandemic-era ultra-loose rate regime. Adding some more worries, India has raised concerns at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over a host of trade barriers built in by Indonesia, including export restrictions on palm oil and import curbs on bovine meat and automotive (auto) parts, holding that such measures have adversely impacted India.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after Hong Kong's retail sales declined for the second straight month in March. The figures from the Census and Statistics Department showed that the retail sales volume decreased 16.8 percent year-on-year in March, following a 17.6 percent fall in February. The value of retail sales declined 13.8 percent annually in March, following a 14.6 percent drop in the preceding month.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 54670.22, down by 1032.01 points or 1.85% after trading in a range of 54596.11 and 55070.12. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 2.58%, while Small cap index was down by 2.61%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal down by 4.25%, Basic Materials down by 3.17%, IT down by 3.03%, Realty down by 2.64% and Consumer Durables down by 2.61%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 1.16%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.20%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.13% and NTPC up by 0.06%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 4.87%, Bajaj Finserv down by 3.91%, Wipro down by 3.80%, Axis Bank down by 3.75% and Ultratech Cement down by 2.95% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Minister of MSMEs Narayan Rane said time has come for the coir industry to diversify in order to tap the potential of new markets and nascent ones. It stated an opportunity presented before the industry is the growing environment - consciousness and the preference still exists for handmade articles in different parts of the world. Stating that the industry has to become competitive in every aspect, he said the aim of the development strategy for coir should be to minimise and, as far as possible to reverse the consequences of loss of market to synthetic substitutes.

Further, it said the main strategy should be to check erosion of end-product markets to regain some lost shares on account of stiff competition posed by the synthetic substitutes in the past and, where possible to expand consumption, particularly in the case of non-traditional products, with market potential.  Besides, it said the short-term approach should be to promote the use of coir fibre products currently on the market to compete with substitutes, while the longer term new technologies and innovative products should be developed, especially in application where natural fibres have advantages over synthetics and where they can compete more successfully than some of those existing products that have been losing market-share.

He mentioned ‘As coir industry is interwoven itself with the social fabric of the coir-producing States, we have to be extremely cautious when new production technologies are introduced. Prior to the introduction of any new technology, there is the need of educating the industry, trade and workers on the need of equipping themselves to survive in the changed scenario. At the same time, it is imperative to ensure that radical changes are not introduced abruptly.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16361.50, down by 321.15 points or 1.93% after trading in a range of 16343.35 and 16482.80. There were 4 stocks advancing against 46 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ITC up by 1.03%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.01%, Britannia up by 0.44% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.01%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 4.92%, Hindalco down by 4.68%, Divi's Lab down by 4.23%, Bajaj Finserv down by 3.93% and Axis Bank down by 3.84% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Straits Times slipped 44.46 points or 1.33% to 3,299.11, Hang Seng declined 741.79 points or 3.57% to 20,051.61, Taiwan Weighted lost 297.83 points or 1.78% to 16,398.29, KOSPI fell 30.93 points or 1.16% to 2,646.64 and Shanghai Composite was down by 70.78 points or 2.31% to 2,996.98. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 rose 231.91 points or 0.86% to 27,050.44.