Benchmarks continue to trade lower in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower in morning deals, amid weak global market trends and rising crude prices. Sentiments remained down-beat with as exchange data showed Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 1,139.07 crore on Monday. However, losses remain capped as traders took some support with a private report 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, the GST Council in its next meeting is likely to discuss decriminalisation of offences under GST law, along with raising the threshold of launching prosecution to Rs 20 crore, from Rs 5 crore at present. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red after Wall Street pulled back as surprisingly strong economic reports highlighted the difficulty of the Federal Reserve's fight against inflation.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 62592.11, down by 242.49 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 62390.07 and 62644.02. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.22%, while Small cap index was down by 0.01%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 0.83%, Power up by 0.79%, FMCG up by 0.17% and PSU up by 0.03%, while Metal down by 1.35%, IT down by 1.14%, TECK down by 1.07%, Telecom down by 0.70% and Realty down by 0.53% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 0.79%, Axis Bank up by 0.64%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.57%, Indusind Bank up by 0.48% and SBI up by 0.25%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.73%, HCL Technologies down by 1.53%, Infosys down by 1.28%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 1.17% and Sun Pharma down by 1.12% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the power ministry in its latest statement has said that 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.  It stated 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.

The AT&C loss and ACS-ARR (Average Cost of Supply-Average Realizable Revenue) gap are key indicators of discoms' performance. It said Ministry of Power has taken a number of measures to improve the performance of utilities. it mentioned preliminary analysis of data for 2021-22 of 56 discoms contributing to more than 96 per cent of input energy, indicates that AT&C losses have declined significantly to 17 per cent in FY2022.

The reduction in AT&C losses has resulted in narrowing the gap between Average Cost of Supply (ACS) and Average Realizable Revenue (ARR). The ACS-ARR Gap (on subsidy received basis, excluding regulatory income & UDAY grant) has declined from Rs 0.69/kWh in FY2021 to Rs 0.22/kWh in FY2022. The government has taken various measures to improve the performance of utilities.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18630.60, down by 70.45 points or 0.38% after trading in a range of 18577.90 and 18640.35. There were 14 stocks advancing against 36 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Enterprises up by 3.10%, Adani Ports &SEZ up by 0.87%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.81%, Axis Bank up by 0.68% and Bajaj Finance up by 0.55%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.77%, Hindalco down by 1.71%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.64%, HCL Technologies down by 1.55% and ONGC down by 1.43% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Straits Times fell 11.90 points or 0.36% to 3,255.64, Hang Seng slipped 181.50 points or 0.93% to 19,336.79, Taiwan Weighted declined 161.09 points or 1.08% to 14,815.29, KOSPI weakened 18.56 points or 0.77% to 2,400.76, Jakarta Composite lost 97.36 points or 1.39% to 6,889.97 and Shanghai Composite was down by 2.54 points or 0.08% to 3,209.27. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 rose 85.43 points or 0.31% to 27,905.83.