Lackluster trade continues on Dalal Street

Indian equity benchmarks continued their lackluster trade in afternoon session, with Sensex and Nifty trading below at 52200 and 15600 levels, respectively. Elevated crude oil prices and persistent foreign capital outflows dented market sentiments. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 3,531.15 crore on Wednesday, exchange data showed. Traders were also worried as India added 12,213 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, witnessing a 38.4 per cent jump from 8, 822 cases. This is the first time since February 26 that the viral infections have crossed the 10,000 mark in a day. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as investors continued to digest the impact of surging inflation and an aggressive policy tightening outlook from global central banks.

Back home, weak broader indices along with sell off at metal, realty and telecom counters dragged the markets lower. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 2357:852; while 121 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 52180.35, down by 361.04 points or 0.69% after trading in a range of 52106.33 and 53142.50. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 1.06%, while Small cap index was down by 1.34%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal down by 2.57%, Realty down by 1.94%, Telecom down by 1.80%, Basic Materials down by 1.67% and Industrials was down by 1.37%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 0.43%, ICICI Bank up by 0.28%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.28% and Reliance Industries up by 0.02%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.95%, Tata Steel down by 2.92%, Wipro down by 2.68%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.35% and NTPC down by 2.33% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Periodic Labour Force (PLF) Survey issued by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has said 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. The unemployment rate was 5.8 percent in 2018-19 and 6.1 percent in 2017-18.

It showed that joblessness has come down gradually during the four years till 2020-21 (July to June). Similarly, the UR among males has also come down to 4.5 percent in 2020-21 from 5.1 in 2019-20, six percent in 2018-19, and 6.2 percent in 2017-18. The same trend of decline in the UR was found among females as it dipped to 3.5 percent 2020-21 from 4.2 percent in 2019-20, 5.2 percent in 2018-19, and 5.7 percent in 2017-18. Worker Population Ratio (WPR) has also improved.

The WPR is defined as the percentage of employed persons in the population. The WPR has increased to 39.8 percent in 2020-21 from 38.2 in 2019-20, 35.3 percent in 2018-20, and 34.7 percent in 2017-18. The WPR in females also improved to 24.2 percent in 2020-21 from 21.8 percent in 2019-20. The WPR among males also rose to 54.9 percent from 53.9 percent in 2019-20. Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) has also increased. The LFPR is defined as the percentage of persons in the labor force (i.e. working or seeking or available for work) in the population.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15573.20, down by 118.95 points or 0.76% after trading in a range of 15540.85 and 15863.15. There were 7 stocks advancing against 43 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Asian Paints up by 0.39%, ICICI Bank up by 0.34%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.29%, Britannia Inds up by 0.18% and Hindustan Unilever was up by 0.11%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 3.71%, Hindalco down by 3.44%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.98%, Tata Steel down by 2.85% and Wipro was down by 2.60% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; KOSPI rose 5.11 points or 0.21% to 2,452.49, Nikkei 225 surged 105.04 points or 0.4% to 26,431.20, Jakarta Composite soared 113.61 points or 1.62% to 7,120.66 and Straits Times was up by 21.24 points or 0.68% to 3,127.09. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted dropped 160.64 points or 1% to 15,838.61, Hang Seng decreased 305.58 points or 1.43% to 21,002.63 and Shanghai Composite was down by 21.75 points or 0.66% to 3,283.66.