Markets trade in red amid muted global cues

Domestic equity indices were trading lower in late morning deals as market participants stayed away from taking fresh positions ahead of the Union Budget on February 1, 2023 and muted global cues.  Depreciation in Indian rupee against dollar weighed down sentiments. Rupee weakened by 12 paise to 81.71 against the dollar at the Inter-bank Foreign Exchange market on account of increased demand for the American currency from importers and banks. On the BSE sectoral front, traders were seen pilling up positions in Telecom, IT, TECK and Consumer Durables, while selling was witnessed in Utilities, Power, Oil & Gas, Energy and Metal. Adani Group stocks were in focus after the Group published a 413-page rebuttal of allegations of wrongdoing by short seller Hindenburg Research. The Group said that Hindenburg Research's report was driven by an ulterior motive to create a false market to allow the U.S. firm to make financial gains.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as investors looked ahead to the interest rate decisions from the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England this week. Back home, in stock specific development, Data Patterns (India) surged after the company reported a strong performance in the December quarter, wherein the revenue and profit after tax (PAT) more-than-doubled.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 59218.42, down by 112.48 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 58706.85 and 59644.24. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.50%, while Small cap index up by 0.04%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.11%, IT up by 0.40%, TECK up by 0.28% and Consumer Durables up by 0.01%, while Utilities down by 6.21%, Power down by 5.71%, Oil & Gas down by 3.74%, Energy down by 3.01% and Metal down by 1.41% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 4.99%, Bajaj Finserv up by 3.27%, Sun Pharma up by 2.56%, NTPC up by 1.89% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.51%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corp down by 3.60%, Indusind Bank down by 2.83%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.14%, Tata Steel down by 1.95% and ICICI Bank down by 1.37% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the 5th Mission Steering Group chaired by Union minister Piyush Goyal has cleared 15 Research & Development (R&D) projects worth around Rs 32.25 crore in key strategic areas. Among these 15 R&D projects, 7 projects of speciality fibres, 2 from protective textiles, 2 from high-performance textiles, 1 from geotextiles, 1 from medical textiles, 1 from sustainable textile, 1 from textiles for building materials were approved. The projects have been approved by the government under the National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM).

Goyal said leading textile manufacturers and institutes should come together to indigenously develop strategic and high-value technical textile products with support of National Technical Textiles Mission.  He also said technical textile machinery and equipment development has been a major challenge which needs collaborative interventions from the government, industry and academia, including commercialisation of the developed machines. He further emphasized that the general guidelines for indigenous development of machines and equipment in the application areas of technical textiles under NTTM is a strong-foot forward and needs to be utilised the industry at its fullest.

The minister urged premier public and private academic and engineering institutes and industries to apply under the education and internship guidelines already launched under the National Technical Textiles Mission on priority basis. He also reviewed the progress of previously sanctioned R&D projects under NTTM during the meeting. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17553.10, down by 51.25 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 17446.25 and 17709.15. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finance up by 5.01%, Bajaj Finserv up by 3.35%, Sun Pharma up by 2.19%, Adani Enterprises up by 1.88% and NTPC up by 1.74%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corp down by 3.76%, Indusind Bank down by 3.01%, JSW Steel down by 2.54%, Apollo Hospital down by 2.39% and Tata Steel down by 2.20% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Hang Seng declined 431.65 points or 1.9% to 22,257.25, KOSPI dropped 29.78 points or 1.2% to 2,454.24, Jakarta Composite plunged 42.04 points or 0.61% to 6,856.94 and Straits Times fell 9.85 points or 0.29% to 3,384.36.  However, Taiwan Weighted added 560.89 points or 3.76% to 15,493.82, Shanghai Composite strengthened 12.16 points or 0.37% to 3,276.97, Nikkei 225 surged 25.1 points or 0.09% to 27,407.66.