Bourses trade volatile in late afternoon session

The Indian equity benchmarks witnessed volatility and currently traded near neutral line with negative bias on the back of weakness in the Realty and PSU sectors. Traders turned cautious amid rising inflation and the longer-than-expected Russia-Ukraine conflict, credit rating agency, S&P Global Ratings in its ‘Global Macro Update to Growth Forecasts’ report has cut India's growth projection for the current fiscal to 7.3 percent from 7.8 percent earlier pegged in December last year. Sector wise, construction equipment (CE) industry remain in focused, as Union Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways General V K Singh has said that the construction equipment (CE) industry must be prepared for the competitive market situation and focus on Industry 4.0 for revamping itself.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green following a strong start in some markets, which took the lead from Wall Street where traders were cheered by brisk US retail sales data. European markets were trading lower struggling to maintain the week’s positive momentum as surging U.K. inflation raised concerns about interest rate rises and slowing growth.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 54259.11, down by 59.36 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 54130.89 and 54786.00. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.23%, while Small cap index was up by 0.34%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 0.98%, Healthcare up by 0.78%, Power up by 0.77%, Utilities up by 0.75% and IT was up by 0.11%, while Realty down by 1.60%, PSU down by 1.49%, Telecom down by 0.60%, Capital Goods down by 0.55%, Consumer Durables down by 0.54% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Ultratech Cement up by 2.19%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.02%, Asian Paints up by 1.75%, Sun Pharma up by 1.43% and Axis Bank up by 0.88%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 4.19%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.99%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.85%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.68% and Larsen & Toubro down by 1.65% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid rising inflation and the longer-than-expected Russia-Ukraine conflict, credit rating agency, S&P Global Ratings in its ‘Global Macro Update to Growth Forecasts’ report has cut India's growth projection for the current fiscal to 7.3 percent from 7.8 percent earlier pegged in December last year.

According to the report released by the rating agency, inflation remaining higher for a long is a worry, which requires central banks to raise rates more than what is currently priced in, risking a harder landing, including a larger hit to output and employment.

Credit rating agency further noted that the growth has been pegged at 6.5 percent for the next fiscal. It said Indian economy is estimated to have clocked a GDP growth of 8.9 percent in the last fiscal (2021-22). S&P also pegged CPI or retail inflation in the current fiscal at 6.9 percent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16254.10, down by 5.20 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 16211.20 and 16399.80. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Consumer up by 2.23%, Cipla up by 2.17%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.12%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.07% and Adani Ports up by 2.01%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 4.40%, BPCL down by 3.10%, Tata Motors down by 2.23%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.05% and Bajaj Finserv down by 1.97% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Nikkei 225 surged 251.45 points or 0.94% to 26,911.20, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 240.77 points or 1.5% to 16,296.86, Jakarta Composite soared 148.94 points or 2.24% to 6,793.41, Hang Seng increased 41.76 points or 0.2% to 20,644.28, Straits Times advanced 35.10 points or 1.1% to 3,236.99 and KOSPI was up by 5.54 points or 0.21% to 2,625.98. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite was down by 7.72 points or 0.25% to 3,085.98.

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 9.36 points or 0.12% to 7,508.99, France’s CAC decreased 22.86 points or 0.36% to 6,407.33 and Germany’s DAX was down by 26.23 points or 0.18% to 14,159.71.