Bourses continue choppy trade in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued to trade choppy in late afternoon session. As for broader indices, BSE Mid cap index remained in red, while BSE Small cap index continued to trade in green. Traders were looking forward to U.S. inflation data, India December inflation data and November industrial production which are scheduled to be released on tomorrow. Besides, cautiousness remained in markets after Fed Chair Jerome Powell, in a speech on Tuesday, refrained from commenting on rate policy but said the Fed's independence was essential for it to battle inflation. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as caution crept in ahead of the release of U.S. consumer price inflation data on Thursday, expected to show further softening. The Aussie dollar resumed its upward journey after data showed inflation in the country accelerated in November on higher housing and food prices and retail sales rose to record levels. European markets were trading higher despite lingering growth worries and uncertainty about how much longer the Fed will remain hawkish.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60046.10, down by 69.38 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 59805.78 and 60364.77. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.41%, while Small cap index was up by 0.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.55%, IT up by 0.23%, Capital Goods up by 0.23%, Bankex up by 0.17% and Industrials was up by 0.12%, while Utilities down by 0.78%, Healthcare down by 0.77%, Telecom down by 0.72%, FMCG down by 0.69% and Energy was down by 0.60% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 1.42%, Sun Pharma up by 1.36%, Tata Motors up by 1.30%, HDFC Bank up by 1.21% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.09%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.56%, Titan Company down by 1.38%, Nestle down by 1.35%, Indusind Bank down by 1.33% and HCL Tech. down by 1.31% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest report has showed that India Inc raised $5.20 billion via external commercial borrowings (ECBs) during November 2022 as against $1.43 billion in October 2022, higher by 3.63 times.

ECBs are used as an additional source of funding by Indian corporates to augment resources available domestically. As per the RBI, Reliance Industries and Reliance Jio Infocomm together accounted for about 58 per cent of the resources raised by India Inc. These two companies raised $1.5 billion each.

Apart from Reliance, companies such as Hindustan Petroleum Corporation raised $25,00,00,000, SRF raised $2,50,00,000, Larsen and Toubro raised $10,70,00,000, JSW Vijayanagar Metallics raised $20,00,00,000 and SF Logistics raised $7,00,000 in November 2022. Besides the aforementioned companies, the other big fundraisers in November include Renew Surya Roshni and Adani Solar Energy AP Six.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17869.40, down by 44.75 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 17824.35 and 17976.35. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 1.98%, BPCL up by 1.84%, Tata Motors up by 1.36%, Sun Pharma up by 1.34% and TCS up by 1.31%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 3.51%, Cipla down by 3.13%, Apollo Hospital down by 2.75%, Divi's Lab down by 2.19% and Eicher Motors down by 2.12% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Nikkei 225 surged 270.44 points or 1.03% to 26,446.00, Hang Seng increased 104.59 points or 0.49% to 21,436.05, KOSPI rose 8.22 points or 0.35% to 2,359.53 and Straits Times was up by 6.41 points or 0.2% to 3,269.32. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 7.67 points or 0.24% to 3,161.84, Jakarta Composite lost 38.05 points or 0.57% to 6,584.45 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 51.52 points or 0.35% to 14,751.44.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 26.36 points or 0.34% to 7,720.85, France’s CAC increased 18.09 points or 0.26% to 6,887.23 and Germany’s DAX was up by 42.55 points or 0.29% to 14,817.15.