Key gauges continue to trade sluggish in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in red in morning deals mirroring an extremely weak global market trends. Losses across sectors pulled the headline indices lower, with IT, TECK and Metal shares being the biggest contributors. Traders were concern as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed that the country's foreign exchange reserves fell $6.687 billion to $564.053 billion in the week ended August 19. In the previous week ended August 12, the reserves declined $2.238 billion to $570.74 billion. Traders overlooked Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the Indian economy will grow at 7.4 per cent in this fiscal (FY23) and continue at the same level in the next fiscal as well. She added the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have projected India’s growth to be the fastest for the next two fiscal years, and their estimates are in sync with that of the Reserve Bank of India as well.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading in red following a brutal sell-off for Wall Street on Friday after Fed Chair Jerome Powell made hawkish remarks in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He declared that the 'economy does not work for anyone' without price stability and the central bank would use its tools 'forcefully' that could mean slower growth, a weaker job market and 'some pain' for households and businesses.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58006.39, down by 827.48 points or 1.41% after trading in a range of 57367.47 and 58066.54. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 1.21%, while Small cap index was down by 1.06%.

The lone gaining sectoral index on the BSE was FMCG up by 0.25%, while IT down by 3.46%, TECK down by 3.21%, Metal down by 2.29%, Realty down by 1.74% and Bankex down by 1.69% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 0.95%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.47%, Nestle up by 0.34% and Ultratech Cement up by 0.18%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 4.63%, Infosys down by 4.11%, HCL Technologies down by 3.38%, Wipro down by 3.13% and TCS down by 2.87% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in its latest report for July 2022 has said that as many as 386 infrastructure projects, each entailing an investment of Rs 150 crore or more, have been hit by cost overruns of more than Rs 4.7 lakh crore. According to the Ministry, which monitors infrastructure projects of Rs 150 crore and above, out of 1,505 projects, 386 reported cost overruns and as many as 661 projects were delayed.

The report stated that total original cost of implementation of the 1505 projects was Rs 21,21,793.23 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 25,92,537.79 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs 4,70,744.56 crore (22.19% of original cost). It mentioned that the expenditure incurred on these projects till July 2022 was Rs 13,50,275.69 crore, or 52.08 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects. However, the number of delayed projects decreases to 511 if delay is calculated on the basis of the latest schedule of completion.

Further, it showed that for 581 projects neither the year of commissioning nor the tentative gestation period has been reported. Out of the 661 delayed projects, 134 have overall delays in the range of 1-12 months, 114 have been delayed for 13-24 months, 289 projects for 25-60 months and 124 projects have been delayed for 61 months and above. The average time overrun in these 661 delayed projects is 41.83 months.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17318.90, down by 240.00 points or 1.37% after trading in a range of 17166.20 and 17328.85. There were 7 stocks advancing against 43 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindustan Unilever up by 0.90%, Britannia Industries up by 0.86%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.62%, Nestle up by 0.42% and Ultratech Cement up by 0.38%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 4.80%, Infosys down by 4.14%, HCL Technologies down by 3.46%, Hindalco down by 3.26% and Wipro down by 3.13% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets are trading in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 719.76 points or 2.51% to 27,921.62, Hang Seng decreased 157.52 points or 0.78% to 20,012.52, Taiwan Weighted dropped 319.12 points or 2.09% to 14,959.32, Straits Times trembled 30.35 points or 0.93% to 3,219.18, KOSPI fell 50.05 points or 2.02% to 2,430.98, Shanghai Composite declined 7.92 points or 0.24% to 3,228.30 and Jakarta Composite lost 49.14 points or 0.69% to 7,086.11.