Local equities continue to sink in red

In line with Asian peers, Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in deep red in afternoon session on account of selling in frontline blue chip counters. Sentiments were fragile as International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated that the global economic outlook remains downbeat and some countries are expected to slip into recession in 2023, but it is too early to say if there will be a widespread global recession. The IMF in July revised down global growth to 3.2% in 2022 and 2.9% in 2023. It will release a new outlook next month. In comparison, the World Bank said the world could be heading towards a global recession in 2023 as central banks across the world simultaneously hike interest rates to combat persistent inflation. Traders were also worried as India Ratings has cuts India's FY23 GDP growth forecast to 6.9 per cent from 7 per cent, joining other institutions who have cut their projections to below 7 per cent since the release of the April-June quarter GDP data.

On the global front, all Asian markets were trading lower with the risk aversion in the market ahead to US Federal Reserve policy meeting. Back home, losses in IT, Auto and TECK shares pulled the headline indices lower. The overall market breadth on BSE remained in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 2251:1115, while 138 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 59261.90, down by 672.11 points or 1.12% after trading in a range of 59154.73 and 59720.56. 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 1.28%, while Small cap index was down by 0.99%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were IT down by 2.30%, Auto down by 2.12%, TECK down by 2.07%, Basic Materials down by 1.47% and Energy was down by 1.37%, while there were no gainers.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 4.21%, Sun Pharma up by 0.70%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.51% and Titan was up by 0.31%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 3.36%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 3.23%, Infosys down by 2.44%, TCS down by 2.40% and Ultratech Cement was down by 2.38% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, SIAM President Kenichi Ayukawa has said that the Indian automobile industry aims to be among the top two producers globally in every segment of vehicles over next 25 years. He said India also plans to be nearly 100 per cent self-reliant in the entire manufacturing value chain of automobiles during the period as per the Vision 2047.

Besides, Ayukawa said the industry aims to have a dominant share of clean energy vehicles on a life-cycle basis in the next 25 years. This means a significant share of all feasible technologies including battery electric, ethanol, flex fuel, CNG, bio-CNG, hybrid electric and hydrogen.  He said that to achieve such ambitious targets the industry would require some key enablers like having single-minded pursuit of competitiveness and second is ease of doing business. He also stated that a long-term regulatory roadmap can be helpful in better planning of investments, technologies and product development. The industry would also have to focus on developing enabling technologies and new energy infrastructure.

Similarly, SIAM President said ‘we have to increase the traction on other frontiers like safety, telematics, infotainment, customer convenient features, etc...also the industry has to ensure the right skilling and re-skilling to make our manpower future ready’. Elaborating on the current market scenario, he noted that the domestic automobile industry has been going through a long-term, deep structural slowdown, even before the pandemic started.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17674.25, down by 203.15 points or 1.14% after trading in a range of 17642.80 and 17820.05. There were 7 stocks advancing against 43 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 4.18%, Cipla up by 2.46%, Sun Pharma up by 0.64%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.49% and JSW Steel was up by 0.33%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 3.82%, Tata Consumer Products down by 3.67%, Tech Mahindra down by 3.43%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 3.21% and UPL was down by 2.56% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 308.26 points or 1.11% to 27,567.65, Taiwan Weighted dropped 108.28 points or 0.74% to 14,561.76, Straits Times trembled 3.34 points or 0.1% to 3,264.64, Hang Seng decreased 124.90 points or 0.66% to 18,805.48, Jakarta Composite lost 122.75 points or 1.68% to 7,182.85, KOSPI fell 22.52 points or 0.94% to 2,379.31 and Shanghai Composite as down by 54.65 points or 1.71% to 3,145.27.