Sensex, Nifty stage some recovery

Indian equity benchmarks staged some recovery in late morning session, supported by heavy buying at Power and Utilities counters. However, negative cues from other Asian markets kept indices lower. Traders got some relief, after Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said that as per provisional estimates released by National Statistical Office (NSO), Indian economy in 2021-22 has fully recovered the pre-pandemic real GDP level of 2019-20. Some worries came, as Crisil Research pegged the headline consumer price inflation to come at 6.8 per cent in FY23 - marginally higher than the Reserve Bank's 6.7 per cent estimate - because of the pressures on the food front, where the increase in prices has been double that of FY22.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, as consumer prices in South Korea were up 6.3 percent on year in July, Statistics Korea said on Tuesday - in line with expectations and accelerating from 6.0 percent in June. On a monthly basis, inflation rose 0.5 percent - exceeding forecasts for 0.4 percent but slowing from 0.6 percent in the previous month.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58014.78, down by 100.72 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 57744.70 and 58147.04. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.48%, while Small cap index was up by 0.39%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 1.34%, Utilities up by 1.15%, PSU up by 0.94%, FMCG up by 0.58% and Consumer Durables up by 0.58%, while Metal down by 1.10%, Realty down by 0.89%, TECK down by 0.69%, IT down by 0.61% and Auto down by 0.32% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 1.87%, Indusind Bank up by 1.84%, Asian Paints up by 1.24%, Bajaj Finserv up by 0.86% and NTPC up by 0.83%. On the flip side, HDFC down by 1.68%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.44%, HDFC Bank down by 1.12%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.11% and Infosys down by 1.05% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Power ministry data has showed that India's power consumption grew marginally by 3.8 per cent year-on-year to 128.38 billion units (BU) in July 2022 amid widespread rains across the country in July with the onset of the Monsoon.

According to the data, power consumption in July last year was recorded at 123.72 BU, which was higher than 112.14 BU in the same month of 2020. However, the peak power demand met, which is the highest supply in a day, during July dipped to 190.38 GW. The peak power supply stood at 200.53 GW in July 2021 and 170.40 GW in July 2020.

It further said power consumption and demand were affected in July 2020 due to the staggering impact of the imposition of lockdown restrictions for curbing the spread of the deadly coronavirus. The consumption in July 2019 (pre-pandemic period) was 116.48 billion units. Power consumption, as well as demand, would grow steadily in the coming months in view of almost normal economic activities in the country.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17300.50, down by 39.55 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 17215.85 and 17331.35. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 2.33%, SBI up by 2.07%, Divi's Lab up by 1.17%, Apollo Hospital Ent. up by 1.13% and Asian Paints up by 1.02%. On the flip side, UPL down by 3.47%, Hindalco down by 2.76%, Eicher Motors down by 2.31%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.21% and SBI Life Insurance down by 1.90% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 384.69 points or 1.37% to 27,608.66, Straits Times trembled 5.13 points or 0.16% to 3,233.62, Jakarta Composite lost 35.78 points or 0.51% to 6,933.00, Shanghai Composite declined 93.37 points or 2.86% to 3,166.59, KOSPI fell 14.70 points or 0.6% to 2,437.55, Taiwan Weighted dropped 289.82 points or 1.93% to 14,691.87 and Hang Seng decreased 545.98 points or 2.71% to 19,619.86.