Bourses trade at day’s low points in late afternoon session

Local equity markets have magnified their losses in late afternoon deals, hovering near the lowest points of the day on account of selling in frontline counters. Mahindra & Mahindra was the biggest loser among the Sensex 30 stocks. Ultratech Cement and Tech Mahindra were the other noticeable losers. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index were also trading with hefty losses. Traders were cautious as India Ratings (Ind-Ra) said that the current account deficit (CAD) may have reached a nine-year or 36-quarter high of 3.4 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of this financial year against a surplus of 0.9 per cent a year ago. Traders paid no heed towards Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said that India is on the path to becoming a 10 trillion-dollar economy in 2030 and the third largest economy in the world by 2047.

On the global front, all Asian markets and European markets were trading lower with most regional indexes headed for weekly losses amid growing expectations of hawkish moves by the Federal Reserve and fears of a global recession.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58835.40, down by 1098.61 points or 1.83% after trading in a range of 58797.06 and 59720.56. There were 1 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 3.23%, while Small cap index was down by 2.66%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 3.65%, Basic Materials down by 3.44%, Auto down by 3.30%, Power down by 3.01% and IT down by 2.81%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The only gainers on the Sensex was Indusind Bank up by 1.81%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 4.57%, Ultratech Cement down by 4.01%, Tech Mahindra down by 3.93%, TCS down by 2.72% and Infosys down by 2.58% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to further improve the ease of doing business, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has yet again revised the threshold limit for paid-up capital of small companies. Earlier, the definition of small companies under the Companies Act, 2013 was revised by increasing their thresholds for paid-up capital from not exceeding Rs 50 lakh to not exceeding Rs 2 crore and turnover from not exceeding Rs 2 crore to not exceeding Rs 20 crore.

It stated this definition has, now, been further revised by increasing such thresholds for paid up Capital from not exceeding Rs 2 crore to not exceeding Rs 4 crore and turnover from not exceeding Rs 20 crore to not exceeding Rs 40 crore. This initiative is part of the government's proactive measures in the recent past towards ease of doing business and ease of living for the corporates.

These include decriminalisation of various provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 and the LLP Act, 2008, extending fast-track mergers to start-ups, incentivising incorporation of One Person Companies (OPCs) etc. Small companies represent the entrepreneurial aspirations and innovation capabilities of lakhs of citizens and contribute to growth and employment in a significant manner.

Moreover, it said that the government has always been committed to taking measures which create a more conducive business environment for law-abiding companies, including reduction of compliance burden on such companies.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17535.05, down by 342.35 points or 1.91% after trading in a range of 17522.20 and 17820.05. There were 2 stocks advancing against 48 stocks declining on the index.

The only gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 1.95% and Cipla up by 1.57%. On the flip side, UPL down by 5.40%, Tata Consumer down by 5.07%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 4.54%, Grasim Industries down by 4.32% and Hero MotoCorp down by 4.13% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading lower, Nikkei 225 slipped 308.26 points or 1.11% to 27,567.65, Hang Seng decreased 168.69 points or 0.89% to 18,761.69, Jakarta Composite lost 136.73 points or 1.87% to 7,168.87, Taiwan Weighted dropped 108.28 points or 0.74% to 14,561.76, Shanghai Composite declined 73.52 points or 2.3% to 3,126.40, KOSPI fell 19.05 points or 0.79% to 2,382.78 and Straits Times was down by 12.21 points or 0.37% to 3,255.77.

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 8.69 points or 0.12% to 7,273.38, France’s CAC decreased 91.82 points or 1.49% to 6,066.02 and Germany’s DAX was down by 230.57 points or 1.78% to 12,726.09.