Benchmark indices continue lackluster trade

Indian bourses continued to trade in negative terrain in noon session with Sensex and Nifty trading down by 289 and 79 points, respectively. Stocks from TECK, IT and Telecom counters were trading lower, while Power, Utilities and Oil & Gas counters were supporting the markets. Sentiments were fragile as foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Friday as they sold shares worth Rs 109.31 crore, as per exchange data. Also, foreign investors continue to desert Indian equity markets and have pulled out over Rs 4,000 crore this month so far amid steady appreciation of the dollar and rising interest rates in the US. Traders were also worried as Indian rupee weakened to a fresh record low against the U.S. dollar amid concerns about global economic growth. The partially convertible rupee was at 79.42, down by 16 paise, against previous close of 79.26 per dollar. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly lower as China edged towards potential lockdowns after a surge in COVID-19 cases, which ignited concerns about slowing growth.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 54193.16, down by 288.68 points or 0.53% after trading in a range of 54090.53 and 54291.97. 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 0.09%, while Small cap index was up by 0.49%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 2.85%, Utilities up by 2.84%, Oil & Gas up by 1.30%, Energy up by 0.97% and Metal was up by 0.72%, while TECK down by 3.13%, IT down by 2.89%, Telecom down by 0.77%, Capital Goods down by 0.72% and Industrials was down by 0.11% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 2.53%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.52%, ICICI Bank up by 1.05%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.83% and Titan Co was up by 0.70%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 4.47%, TCS down by 4.41%, HCL Tech down by 3.15%, Infosys down by 2.89% and Tech Mahindra was down by 2.37% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Retirement fund body Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) will consider and approve a proposal for setting up a central pension disbursal system in its meeting on July 29 and 30, paving the way for crediting the benefit into over 73 lakh pensioners' bank accounts in one go across India.

Presently, over 138 regional offices of the EPFO disburse pensions to beneficiaries in their region separately. Thus, the pensioners of different regional offices are getting pensions at different times or days.  The pension would be disbursed using a central database of over 138 regional offices in the country and this will facilitate crediting the benefit into bank accounts of over 73 lakh beneficiaries in one go. All regional offices cater to the pensioners in their regions separately and that is why pensioners across the country get pension on different times or days.

In the 229th meeting of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) held on November 20, 2021, the trustees had approved the proposal for development of centralized IT-enabled systems by C-DAC.  The labour ministry had stated in a statement after the meeting that post this, the field functionalities will move on a central database in a phased manner enabling smoother operations and enhanced service delivery. The centralized system will facilitate de-duplication & merger of all PF accounts of any member. It will remove the requirement of transfer of account on change of job. Presently, only those subscribers are eligible for withdrawal from their pension accounts who have contributed for six months to 10 years.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16141.55, down by 79.05 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 16115.50 and 16175.45. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 3.05%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 2.66%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.33%, JSW Steel up by 1.37% and Coal India up by 1.21%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 4.54%, TCS down by 4.48%, HCL Tech. down by 3.14%, Infosys down by 2.91% and BPCL down by 2.80% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly lower; KOSPI fell 10.34 points or 0.44% to 2,340.27, Jakarta Composite lost 21.68 points or 0.32% to 6,718.54, Taiwan Weighted dropped 124.00 points or 0.86% to 14,340.53, Shanghai Composite declined 55.75 points or 1.66% to 3,300.33 and Hang Seng was down by 690.16 points or 3.18% to 21,035.62. On the flip side, Nikkei 225 was up by 295.11 points or 1.11% to 26,812.30.