Weak trade continue over Dalal Street

Weak trade continued over the Dalal Street in late morning session, with both Sensex and Nifty trading lower, on the back of negative cues from other Asian markets. Traders got cautious, amid a report stating that investors' wealth eroded by more than Rs 2.21 lakh crore in early trade on Wednesday, with the market witnessing a selling-off amid prospects of aggressive rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve to tackle high inflation, and sluggish global trends. Traders took a note of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's statement that many countries have evinced interest for bilateral trade in the rupee after the RBI announced a mechanism recently.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red, following the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight, after hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data raised concerns the Fed will even more aggressively hike interest rate at its upcoming policy meeting next week and triggered heavy selling at several counters from across various sectors.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60171.99, down by 399.09 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 59417.12 and 60194.48. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.28%, while Small cap index was down by 0.10%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 0.52%, Telecom up by 0.42%, Basic Materials up by 0.38%, Metal up by 0.37% and Bankex up by 0.30%, while IT down by 3.30%, TECK down by 2.87%, Realty down by 1.30%, Capital Goods down by 0.75% and Oil & Gas down by 0.70% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 2.28%, NTPC up by 2.15%, Power Grid up by 1.70%, SBI up by 1.24% and ITC up by 0.58%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 4.45%, Tech Mahindra down by 3.64%, TCS down by 3.29%, HCL Tech. down by 2.47% and Wipro down by 1.87% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran has said India is not defending the rupee and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is taking necessary steps to ensure that the movement of the rupee is gradual and in line with market trends. Further, he said that the rupee is being managed in a manner that reflects the fundamentals of the economy.

He mentioned ‘India is not defending the rupee… I don’t think Indian fundamentals are such that we need to defend the rupee. The rupee can take care of itself.’ He added ‘The RBI is making sure that whatever direction the rupee is moving in line with the market trends is just gradual and doesn't impose burden either on the importers or the exporters.’

Besides, on declining foreign exchange reserves, he said, global risk aversion prevents capital from coming in. Naturally that is what (foreign) reserves are meant for. RBI data showed the country's foreign exchange reserves declined by USD 3.007 billion to USD 561.046 billion in the week ended August 26.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17961.10, down by 108.95 points or 0.60% after trading in a range of 17771.15 and 17964.15. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 2.54%, NTPC up by 2.24%, Power Grid up by 1.61%, SBI up by 1.38% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.65%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 4.40%, Tech Mahindra down by 3.57%, TCS down by 3.38%, HCL Tech. down by 2.44% and Wipro down by 1.82% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 796.01 points or 2.78% to 27,818.62, Straits Times fell 35.08 points or 1.07% to 3,255.00, Hang Seng plunged 486.41 points or 2.52% to 18,840.45, Taiwan Weighted lost 251.82 points or 1.69% to 14,642.59, KOSPI declined 39.07 points or 1.59% to 2,410.47, Jakarta Composite weakened 52.88 points or 0.72% to 7,265.14 and Shanghai Composite was down by 29.71 points or 0.91% to 3,234.09.