Markets trade lower with over half percent cut in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made negative start on Tuesday tracking weak global cues. Investors are looking ahead to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s policy decision today. It is expected to deliver a 25 bps rate hike. Markets are trading lower with over half a percent cut in early deals due to selling in IT, TECK and Metal stocks. Foreign fund outflow dented sentiments in domestic markets. Provisional NSE data showed foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold Rs 1,139.07 crore worth of shares on December 5. Weak rupee also impacted the equity markets. Rupee depreciated against US dollar amid elevated crude prices. The local unit breached the 82 level and was trading at 82.27 against the greenback. Traders failed to take any sense of relief with a private report stating that India’s central bank will probably start slowing the pace of interest-rate increases on Wednesday, signaling it’s near the end of its aggressive tightening cycle. Meanwhile, market participants are also keeping eye on election exit poll results across Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.

Most of the Asian markets are trading lower following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders are concerned about more aggressive monetary policy moves by the US Fed after data showed an unexpected acceleration in U.S. services sector activity in the month of November. Back home, power stocks were buzzing as aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses of power distribution utilities declined to 17 per cent in 2021-22 from 22 per cent in the previous year. Power ministry said reduction in AT&C losses improves finances of utilities (discoms), enabling them to better maintain the system and buy power as per requirement and benefit the consumers. In stock specific development, IRB Infrastructure Developers rose after its yearly toll collections came 39 per cent higher at Rs 366 crore.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 62492.76, down by 341.84 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 62390.07 and 62599.41. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.13%, while Small cap index was up by 0.10%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 0.69%, Power up by 0.66%, PSU up by 0.15%, FMCG up by 0.03%, while IT down by 1.12%, TECK down by 1.12%, Metal down by 1.07%, Telecom down by 0.72%, Realty down by 0.55% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 0.83%, NTPC up by 0.46%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.39%, Bajaj Finserv up by 0.28% and Bajaj Finance up by 0.28%. On the flip side, HCL Technologies down by 1.65%, Tata Steel down by 1.47%, Infosys down by 1.37%, TCS down by 1.05% and Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 1.05% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India has proposed dovetailing climate action with sustainable development at the first meeting of the G20 Sherpas, making a clear bid to bring issues facing the emerging economies and the global south in sharp focus on the world stage. The discussions focussed on technological transformation in the digital economy, health and education, green development and India's Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) initiative.

India's G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant made a strong pitch for working together through hope, harmony and healing to deal with the global challenges, with a focus on developing countries and the global south whose voice is often unheard. He flagged rising global debt, inflation and slowdown in growth, sharp differences over the Ukraine conflict as key challenges facing the world.

He said ‘we will be, but that is not feasible nor possible without all of you. Therefore, we would like the support, positive and forward-looking support from all of you to make the G20 a very vibrant, very dynamic and a very positive group to drive global growth and global sustainability and digital transformation’. He added that India's G20 Presidency will seek to advocate the priorities of the developing countries and the global south in addition to that of the partners of the grouping.

Highlighting India's initiatives on digital transformation, Kant said ‘In digital economy, we are focussing on digital public infrastructure, quite a bit on our experience of creating digital identities and bank accounts for everyone. This has enabled us to lift vast section of the population above the poverty line through direct benefit transfer and fast payments.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18593.45, down by 107.60 points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 18577.90 and 18637.80. There were 13 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI Life Insurance up by 1.27%, Indusind Bank up by 0.78%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.54%, Bajaj Finserv up by 0.39% and HDFC Life Insurance up by 0.38%. On the flip side, HCL Technologies down by 1.95%, Hindalco down by 1.66%, ONGC down by 1.60%, Tata Steel down by 1.42% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.37% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Straits Times fell 10.26 points or 0.31% to 3,257.28, Hang Seng slipped 177.92 points or 0.91% to 19,340.37, Taiwan Weighted declined 123.68 points or 0.83% to 14,857.06, KOSPI weakened 11.68 points or 0.48% to 2,407.64, Jakarta Composite lost 85.85 points or 1.23% to 6,901.48 and Shanghai Composite was down by 2.54 points or 0.08% to 3,209.27. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 rose 104.81 points or 0.38% to 27,925.21.