Local equities continue sluggish trend in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower in morning deals, dragged by losses in Realty, Utilities and Power stocks. Sentiments remained downbeat with private report stated that after three consecutive years of infusing huge funds, foreign portfolio investors retreated from the Indian equity markets in a big way in 2022 with the highest-ever yearly net outflow of nearly Rs 1.21 lakh crore. Some pessimism also came as RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Member Ashima Goyal’s statement that the government should not go in for an 'aggressive fiscal consolidation' in the upcoming budget as global risks have not abated. Traders overlooked Crisil’s report stated that strong domestic demand, healthier corporate balance sheets, and a well-capitalised banking sector are expected to steer India towards a 7 per cent gross domestic product (GDP) print in 2022-23.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red as rising Covid cases in China alarmed investors who had anticipated the world's second-largest economy to pick up steam following the easing of strict restrictions. Back home, coal industry stocks remained in watch with report that the Coal Ministry has identified four coking coal mines to be offered in subsequent rounds of auction for the private sector to further increase domestic raw coking coal supply.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60541.04, down by 369.24 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 60479.06 and 60685.13. There were 2 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 1.02%, while Small cap index was down by 0.42%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 1.18%, Utilities down by 1.14%, Power down by 1.14%, Auto down by 0.96% and Oil & Gas down by 0.84%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The few gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 0.82% and Sun Pharma up by 0.27%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.49%, HDFC down by 1.37%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.22%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.21% and Bajaj Finserv down by 1.14% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with encouraging domestic passenger numbers, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has said that the country's civil aviation sector is witnessing a very strong V-shaped recovery and the growth will continue in the coming years. After being significantly hit by the coronavirus pandemic, the sector is on the recovery path and the daily domestic air passenger traffic has been above the 4-lakh mark for the past few weeks.

Moreover, he said the domestic passenger numbers are very encouraging and already, the number is around 111 million till November this year. Against the backdrop of congestion at airports that has now eased, the civil aviation minister also said efforts have been made to ensure that airport operators put in place steps that will allow the decongestion of airports.

Besides, about the current coronavirus situation worldwide and its shadow on the civil aviation sector, Scindia said Covid is always a concern. He said ‘The very fact that we have very high Covid numbers across the world today from China to South Korea to Japan to European countries, it is certainly a concern.’ He added ‘We have to be careful, which is why we have put in place what the health ministry requested us and mandated us for 2 per cent screening of all passengers coming into India. Fortunately, we are not seeing that high positivity numbers at least currently... I think we need to still wait and watch the situation.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18009.90, down by 112.60 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 17992.80 and 18061.00. There were 5 stocks advancing against 45 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 0.80%, Tata Steel up by 0.77%, ONGC up by 0.21%, UPL up by 0.14% and Sun Pharma up by 0.12%. On the flip side, Tata Consumer Product down by 1.58%, Tata Motors down by 1.57%, Grasim Industries down by 1.51%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.32% and HDFC down by 1.29% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 278.07 points or 1.06% to 26,062.43, Hang Seng decreased 223.06 points or 1.12% to 19,675.85, Taiwan Weighted dropped 77.06 points or 0.54% to 14,096.04, KOSPI fell 32.37 points or 1.42% to 2,248.08, Straits Times trembled 27.33 points or 0.84% to 3,239.64 and Shanghai Composite declined 9.60 points or 0.31% to 3,077.80.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite soared 5.23 points or 0.08% to 6,855.75.