Bourses enter into red territory in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets entered into red territory in late afternoon session owing to selling pressure in frontline blue-chip counters. Domestic sentiments got hit with private report that India’s current account deficit (CAD) is expected to more than double sequentially to over $30 billion in the first quarter of financial year 2022-23 (Q1FY23) to rise above 3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) from $13.4 billion, or 1.5 per cent of GDP, in the previous quarter. Sector wise, tea industry remained in focused, as Tea exports during the period January to July in the calendar year 2022 have touched 116.36 million kg as compared to 103.38 million kg in the same period of 2021. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed after the Bank of England stepped in to buy U.K. debt, helping ease volatility in the currency and bond markets. European markets were trading lowers as host of companies, including Swedish group H&M, warned about the effect of rising inflation and costs on their business, dampening the mood ahead of the release of expected red-hot German inflation data.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 56453.87, down by 144.41 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 56314.05 and 57166.14. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.16%, while Small cap index was up by 0.34%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.51%, Healthcare up by 1.21%, FMCG up by 0.88%, Utilities up by 0.43% and Energy was up by 0.43%, while IT down by 0.61%, Consumer Durables down by 0.40%, Bankex down by 0.38%, Auto down by 0.37% and TECK was down by 0.33% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 2.72%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 2.60%, Tata Steel up by 1.78%, Sun Pharma up by 1.38% and NTPC up by 0.88%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 4.72%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.00%, Titan Company down by 1.35%, TCS down by 1.29% and Wipro down by 1.24% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Aided by double-digit sales growth across therapies, except anti-infectives, Credit rating agency, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report has said that the Indian pharmaceutical market (IPM) continued to deliver healthy sales growth for the third consecutive month at 12.1% mom (month on month) in August 2022. This is despite the higher base impact (August 2021 growth at 18.1% yoy).

According to the report, COVID-19 influence had reduced drastically by July 2021 and hence most of the therapies had started following the normal seasonal trends. Most key therapies holding onto strong growth (yoy basis), such as cardiac (14.7%), gastro-intestinal (13.8%), derma (13.5%), respiratory (18.7%), CNS (15.1%), gynaec (18.6%) and anti-neoplastics (23.1%), reported a robust performance, except low single-digit growth in anti-Infectives (1.9%).

Ind-Ra further noted that despite the weak performance from February to May 2022, the acute therapy segment reported a healthy recovery in August 2022. Post normalisation of the high growth months of April 2021 (51.5% growth) and May 2021 (47.8%), led by the lockdown-related lower base last year and higher volume growth, the average IPM growth from June 2021 to January 2022 was healthy at 11.1% yoy, while the average IPM growth was at 4.7% during February to August 2022.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16831.25, down by 27.35 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 16788.60 and 17026.05. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 3.08%, ITC up by 2.79%, Apollo Hospital up by 2.78%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 2.63% and ONGC up by 2.57%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 4.71%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.25%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.05%, Bajaj Auto down by 1.61% and Titan Company down by 1.41% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Nikkei 225 surged 248.07 points or 0.95% to 26,422.05, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 68.19 points or 0.51% to 13,534.26, Straits Times advanced 3.44 points or 0.11% to 3,119.75 and KOSPI was up by 1.64 points or 0.08% to 2,170.93. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 3.87 points or 0.13% to 3,041.20, Jakarta Composite lost 40.83 points or 0.58% to 7,036.20 and Hang Seng was down by 85.01 points or 0.49% to 17,165.87.

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 134.79 points or 1.92% to 6,870.60, France’s CAC decreased 96.49 points or 1.67% to 5,668.52 and Germany’s DAX was down by 200.43 points or 1.65% to 11,982.85.