Domestic indices trade lower in early deals; Sensex below 57,700 mark

Indian equity benchmarks made cautious start on Monday tracking weakness in global peers. Markets are trading lower in early deals due to selling in Realty, Metal and Oil & Gas counters. Foreign fund outflows weighted down on the domestic market sentiments. According to the provisional data available on the NSE, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have net sold shares worth Rs 1,011.23 crore on October 14. Weak opening in Indian rupee also dampen the sentiments. Today, rupee opened 14 paise weaker at 82.33 from its previous close of 82.19 on Friday. Though, downside remained capped as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Indian economy will stay on course despite global headwinds and is projected to grow at seven per cent in fiscal 2022-23, and attributed this to the conducive domestic policy environment and focus on key structural reforms. She also reiterated that the inflation rate, which is hovering over 7 per cent in India, is at a manageable level compared to where some other countries are at present. Some support also came in as Union minister of commerce and industry Piyush Goyal said India will achieve the target for exports of $2 trillion by 2030 despite global headwinds.

On the global front, all the Asian market are trading lower following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street on Friday, reflecting lingering concerns about a recession after recent hotter than expected U.S. inflation data raised expectations of further aggressive interest rate hikes by central banks around the world to control rising consumer prices. Back home, power industry stocks were in focus with a private report that aggregate losses of power distribution utilities or discoms increased by 66 per cent to Rs 50,281 crore in 2020-21 as compared to the previous year. In stock specific development, Dilip Buildcon rallied after the company bagged order worth Rs 702.02 crore.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57689.53, down by 230.44 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 57639.80 and 57985.77. There were 5 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.91%, while Small cap index was down by 0.75%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE Realty down by 1.69%, Metal down by 1.63%, Oil & Gas down by 1.19%, Energy down by 1.13%, Industrials down by 0.82%, while there was no gainer on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 0.62%, ICICI Bank up by 0.56%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 0.41%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.23% and Sun Pharma up by 0.06%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.06%, Tata Steel down by 1.90%, Indusind Bank down by 1.20%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.07% and Larsen & Toubro down by 1.00% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, expressing optimism over the country’s economic growth, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said the Indian economy will stay on course despite global headwinds and is projected to grow at 7% in fiscal 2022-23 (FY23). She attributed this to the conducive domestic policy environment and the government’s focus on key structural reforms to boost growth. She said the global economic outlook is clouded by key downside risks: growth slowdown in major economies, cross-border effects due to the ongoing geopolitical situation, inflationary pressures led by escalating food and energy prices that have adversely impacted vulnerable economies.

She added that the Indian Government has taken initiatives to protect growth while pursuing inflation management. She noted that the government has ensured the availability of free food grains to more than 800 million vulnerable families for the past 25 months, through the country’s massive public distribution network. Last-mile delivery of financial services to the poor has been a key priority of the government and this has been aided by India’s digital public good infrastructure. She also said ‘Today, India is leading the world in terms of digital payments innovations with our transaction cost being the lowest in the world’.

Observing that a key downside risk to global recovery is the exacerbated debt distress in many low-income countries, Sitharaman said it is therefore important that the IMF provides the necessary support to deal with the balance of payments-related vulnerabilities. On climate change, she emphasised the importance of a multilateral approach with the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. India has set out an ambitious climate action path through its updated Nationally Determined Contributions that demonstrates India’s commitment at the highest level to decoupling economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17149.00, down by 36.70 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 17098.55 and 17201.00. There were 12 stocks advancing against 38 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Auto up by 2.65%, SBI up by 1.03%, ICICI Bank up by 0.94%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.82% and Eicher Motors up by 0.61%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.11%, JSW Steel down by 1.30%, Adani Enterprises down by 1.26%, Apollo Hospital down by 1.21% and Larsen & Toubro down by 1.09% were the top losers.

All the Asian markets are trading in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 373.93 points or 1.38% to 26,716.83, Straits Times lost 33.71 points or 1.11% to 3,005.90, Hang Seng declined 199.61 points or 1.20% to 16,388.08, Taiwan Weighted plunged 192.02 points or 1.46% to 12,936.10, KOSPI fell 1.58 points or 0.07% to 2,210.97, Jakarta Composite weakened 31.20 points or 0.46% to 6,783.33 and Shanghai Composite was down by 3.16 points or 0.10% to 3,068.83.