Bears hold tight grip over Dalal Street

Bears were holding a tight grip over the Dalal Street in early afternoon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty trading in red, tracking negative other Asian markets. Domestic sentiment remained pessimistic, as World Bank's India Development Update said India is affected by spillovers from the US, Euro area and China. It however saw the government meeting the fiscal deficit target of 6.4 percent of the GDP in 2022-23. Besides, World Bank expects the inflation at 7.1 percent in current fiscal year. Traders paid no heed towards Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar’s statement that the Government of India is continuously working efficiently under the leadership of Prime Minister, with an aim to solve challenges of the agriculture sector.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, as Singapore's retail sales growth continued to ease in October. The data from the Department of Statistics showed that retail sales rose 10.4 percent year-on-year in October, after an 11.3 percent growth in September. Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales advanced 14.3 percent yearly in October, after a 16.9 percent gain in the preceding month.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 62506.02, down by 328.58 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 62390.07 and 62644.54. There were 5 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell by 0.46%, while Small cap index was down by 0.24%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 0.56%, Power up by 0.55% and FMCG up by 0.12%, while Metal down by 1.90%, IT down by 1.41%, TECK down by 1.34%, Telecom down by 0.98% and Consumer Durables down by 0.74% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 0.96%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.76%, Reliance Industries up by 0.05%, Ultratech Cement up by 0.02% and ITC up by 0.01%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.46%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 1.56%, Infosys down by 1.55%, TCS down by 1.50% and HCL Tech. down by 1.43% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for MSME Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma has said that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are among the most important pillars of India's economy and the government is working to make the sector stronger and more developed. He said ‘we will also work to ensure that interrelationship between the MSME sector and other important pillars of the Indian economy are further strengthened as India grows’.

Verma urged the industry and other stakeholders to work with the government to make India a $5 trillion economy along with becoming self-reliant. He said there are 6.3 crore MSMEs in the country which are providing 11 crore jobs. MSMEs contribute around 30 per cent to our GDP and have a share of 50 per cent of the income generated from total exports. Further, he  said that the government is taking continuous steps to strengthen Indian MSMEs and PMEGP (Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme), launched last financial year, was a step in this direction. Under this scheme in the year 2021-22, a total of 1.03 lakh new units have been set up in the manufacturing and services sector.

The minister said the government is also working to ensure that by taking advantage of the full potential of the MSMEs, their contribution to the Indian economy should be doubled. He said ‘for this, we will ensure to remove the external barriers and provide strength to MSMEs in order to make India self-reliant. We are also working to develop the culture of becoming entrepreneurs in the youth, provide loans to MSMEs, improve their quality and increase their competitiveness to increase their efficiency.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18609.65, down by 91.40 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 18577.90 and 18648.05. There were 9 stocks advancing against 41 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Enterprises up by 2.41%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.91%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.82%, Britannia Industries up by 0.54% and Bajaj Auto up by 0.41%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 2.84%, Tata Steel down by 2.50%, JSW Steel down by 1.76%, Eicher Motors down by 1.71% and UPL down by 1.71% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted dropped 251.86 points or 1.68% to 14,728.88, Hang Seng decreased 212.43 points or 1.09% to 19,305.86, Jakarta Composite lost 92.67 points or 1.33% to 6,894.66, KOSPI fell 26.16 points or 1.08% to 2,393.16, Straits Times trembled 16.29 points or 0.5% to 3,251.25 and Shanghai Composite declined 3.17 points or 0.1% to 3,208.64, while Nikkei 225 surged 65.47 points or 0.24% to 27,885.87.