Indian equities trade lower in early deals; WPI data eyed

Indian equity benchmarks magnified their previous session’s losses with negative start on Tuesday tracking weakness in global peers. Markets are trading lower with marginal cut of 0.21% each in early deals ahead of wholesale inflation numbers to be out later in the day for further cues. Traders were concerned with continued selling by foreign investors. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have net sold Rs 4,164.01 crore worth of shares on June 13, as per provisional data available on the NSE. Some cautiousness also came in as retail inflation stayed above the Reserve Bank’s upper tolerance level of 6 per cent for the fifth month in a row, though it eased to 7.04 per cent in May from April's near-eight-year high of 7.79 percent, mainly on account of softening food and fuel prices as the government as well as the RBI stepped in to control spiralling price rise by way of duty cuts and repo rate hike.

On the global front, all the Asian markets are trading lower extending the sell-off in the previous session, following the broadly negative cues from the global markets overnight, as rising worries about global economic slowdown, higher bond yields and looming aggressive interest rate hikes triggered heavy selling across the board. Back home, coal industry stocks were in focus with report that India’s coal import is likely to decline by 11.4 per cent to 186 million tonnes (MT) in the current financial year, even as the state-owned firm has issued import tenders to source the dry fuel from overseas. In stock specific development, Tata Steel rose after it unveiled a 7-million-pound investment plan for its Hartlepool Tube Mill in north-east England.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 52733.54, down by 113.16 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 52459.48 and 52798.56. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.02%, while Small cap index was up by 0.13%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 0.88%, Power up by 0.78%, Telecom up by 0.51%, TECK up by 0.24%, IT up by 0.20%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.56%, Energy down by 0.53%, Bankex down by 0.45%, Consumer Discretionary down by 0.38%, Realty down by 0.37% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid up by 1.57%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.28%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.01%, NTPC up by 0.84% and Tata Steel up by 0.72%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.97%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.34%, Indusind Bank down by 0.97%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.77% and Axis Bank down by 0.71% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, retail inflation or Consumer Price Index (CPI) eased to 7.04 per cent in May, mainly on account of softening food and fuel prices as the government as well as the RBI stepped in to control spiralling price rise by way of duty cuts and repo rate hike. However, the inflation print stayed above the Reserve Bank’s upper tolerance level of 6 per cent for the fifth month in a row. The CPI was 7.79 per cent in April. In the year-ago month of May 2021, retail inflation stood at 6.3 per cent. Inflation in the food basket in May 2022 was at 7.97 per cent, down from 8.31 per cent in the previous month. The food basket has weightage of 39.06 per cent in the overall Consumer Price Index.

The National Statistical Office (NSO) under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in its data has showed that the Rural CPI (General) in May 2022 stood at 7.01 per cent as against 8.38 per cent in April. The Urban CPI (General) stood at 7.08 per cent in May as against 7.09 per cent in April. The index value for Rural, Urban and Combined CPI (General) stood at 172.4, 170.8 and 171.7 respectively, in May 2022.

As per the data, the inflation print in the 'cereals and products' segment eased to 5.33 percent in May as against 5.96 percent in the preceding month, while that for 'oil and fats' softened to 13.26 percent from 17.28 percent. The rate of price rise for fruits slowed to 2.33 percent from 4.99 percent. However, vegetable prices accelerated 18.26 percent as against 15.41 percent in April. Among others, the prices of eggs and 'pulses and products' showed deceleration, with negative inflation prints of (-)4.64 percent and (-)0.42 percent, respectively. In the 'fuel and light' category, inflation during the month softened a tad at 9.54 percent from 10.80 percent in April.

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 May 2022, NSO collected prices from 99.8% villages and 98.3% urban Markets while the Market-wise prices reported therein were 90.0% for rural and 93.1% for urban.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15740.85, down by 33.55 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 15659.45 and 15767.45. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Power Grid up by 1.55%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.44%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.95%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 0.94% and NTPC up by 0.87%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.96%, BPCL down by 1.43%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.28%, Indusind Bank down by 1.13% and Tata Motors down by 1.07% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets are trading in red; Nikkei 225 plunged 411.80 points or 1.53% to 26,575.64, Straits Times fell 29.65 points or 0.94% to 3,109.70, Hang Seng declined 191.27 points or 0.91% to 20,876.31, Taiwan Weighted lost 95.08 points or 0.59% to 15,975.90, KOSPI slipped 20.07 points or 0.80% to 2,484.44, Jakarta Composite skidded 14.06 points or 0.20% to 6,981.38 and Shanghai Composite was down by 51.93 points or 1.60% to 3,203.62.