Sensex, Nifty turn negative in late morning session

Cutting all of their gains, Indian equity benchmarks turned negative in late morning session, with both Sensex and Nifty trading in red, despite positive cues from other Asian markets. Traders were cautious, as the panel of ministers on GST rate rationalisation is scheduled to meet on June 17 to discuss possible tweaking in tax rates. The street overlooked a government survey stating that the unemployment rate or the proportion of persons in the labor force who could not find jobs has dipped to 4.2 percent in July 2020-June 2021 from 4.8 percent a year ago amid the pandemic that caused economic disruption.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, even after the Hong Kong Monetary Authority raised its base rate by 75 basis points after the rate hike decision of the U.S. Federal Reserve. The HKMA adjusted upward the base rate to 2.00 percent with immediate effect according to a pre-set formula. The Base Rate is currently set at either 50 basis points above the lower end of the prevailing target range for the US federal funds rate or the average of the five-day moving averages of the overnight and one-month Hong Kong Interbank Offered Rates, whichever is the higher.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 52303.58, down by 237.81 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 52246.82 and 53142.50. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.71%, while Small cap index was down by 0.95%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal down by 1.95%, Realty down by 1.50%, Telecom down by 1.34%, Basic Materials down by 1.21% and PSU down by 1.03%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 0.60%, Reliance Industries up by 0.38%, Asian Paints up by 0.35%, ICICI Bank up by 0.26% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.07%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.27%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.21%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.03%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.98% and Power Grid down by 1.94% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Telecom and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said that India's biggest spectrum auction, which will pave the way for high-speed 5G services, is likely to conclude by July-end and the rollout is expected by September this year. He said the Cabinet has approved 5G spectrum auction which is scheduled to begin from July 26, 2022.

Vaishnaw said ‘5G spectrum auction process has started on June 15, 2022. We should see the auction process completing by end of July, which is what our scheduled target date was. Telecom companies are already working in parallel to set up the entire infrastructure.’ The 5G services are expected to be rolled out by August-September. He said ‘Auction is in time. July was the timeframe for auction. August-September was timeframe to begin rollout.’

The minister further said the government’s vision is very clear that the figure of 100 unicorns in the country should now increase and India's position as the third-largest startup ecosystem should now further consolidate. He said ‘Our startups have started emerging from tier-two and tier-three cities. That process also has to go forward in a very big way. In future, the startups have to come more and more from smaller places’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15601.45, down by 90.70 points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 15587.75 and 15863.15. There were 8 stocks advancing against 42 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 0.58%, Britannia up by 0.45%, ICICI Bank up by 0.31%, Reliance Industries up by 0.30% and Asian Paints up by 0.25%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 3.19%, Cipla down by 2.68%, Tata Steel down by 2.31%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.16% and ONGC down by 2.08% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 199.03 points or 0.76% to 26,525.19, Jakarta Composite soared 113.61 points or 1.62% to 7,120.66, Straits Times advanced 34.75 points or 1.12% to 3,140.60, KOSPI rose 19.73 points or 0.81% to 2,467.11 and Shanghai Composite gained 8.12 points or 0.25% to 3,313.53. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted dropped 30.64 points or 0.19% to 15,968.61 and Hang Seng decreased 85.00 points or 0.4% to 21,223.21.