Markets continue to languish in negative territory

In a dismal session of trade, local equity markets continued to languish into negative territory lacking any positive trigger which could lift benchmark equity indices higher. Sentiments largely remained dampened as strong U.S. data released overnight coupled with hawkish Fed remarks fueled inflation and rate-hike worries. However, some support came with Economic think tank Global Trade Research Initiative’s report where it said that India’s merchandise exports have recorded a healthy growth in both value and volume terms in 2022. The outbound shipments rose by 14.6 per cent year-on-year to $453.3 billion in 2022.

On the global front, Asian markets followed Wall Street lower after two Fed officials warned of additional hikes in borrowing costs to lower inflation back to the central bank’s 2 percent target. Fed President Loretta Mester said there is need for more tightening to tame inflation. Back home, cement companies remained in focus after Most of the company managements’ continue to be positive on the cement demand, led by the government’s thrust on infrastructure projects, pick-up in urban real estate, and likely recovery in the rural segment.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61151.91, down by 167.60 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 60921.84 and 61302.72. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index slipped 0.44%, while Small cap index was up by 0.06%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.39%, Industrials up by 0.87%, Oil & Gas up by 0.32%, Power up by 0.29% and Metal was up by 0.28%, while Realty down by 1.51%, Bankex down by 0.84%, Telecom down by 0.83%, TECK down by 0.76% and IT down by 0.76% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 2.52%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.00%, Asian Paints up by 1.13%, NTPC up by 1.11% and Tata Steel up by 0.80%. On the flip side, Nestle down by 2.83%, Indusind Bank down by 2.13%, HCL Tech down by 1.33%, SBI down by 1.26% and Wipro down by 1.24% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, former Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar has said the Budget should have focused more on asset monetisation and privatisation, besides allocating more funds to the social sector schemes. Finance Mininster Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2023-24 in the Lok Sabha on February 1.

Kumar said ‘There should be (have been) a lot more focus on privatisation and asset monetisation, which I do not find reference to here (Budget).’ He also said Rs 51,000 crore disinvestment target is way too low. He stated 'And in some sense, I feel that the space for private investment, actually has been shrinking in the economy. And I think that's something which can also be seen in the fact that we brought the commercial bank credit growth in double digits finally, but the commercial bank credit to industry is still in the very mid single digits, hardly any demand for credit at all.’

Besides, he suggested that funds raised through asset monetisation should be used to retire public debt. For the next fiscal 2023-24, the Budget has pegged disinvestment revenue at Rs 51,000 crore. The government has also scaled down the disinvestment target for the current fiscal to Rs 50,000 crore, from Rs 65,000 crore budgeted last year.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17990.05, down by 45.80 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 17927.45 and 18034.25. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Larsen & Toubro up by 2.66%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.12%, Asian Paints up by 1.36%, BPCL up by 1.32% and ONGC up by 1.31%. On the flip side, Nestle down by 2.83%, Adani Enterprises down by 2.54%, SBI Life Insurance down by 2.08%, Indusind Bank down by 2.05% and HDFC Life Insurance was down by 1.55% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red, Taiwan Weighted lost 70.80 points or 0.46% to 15,479.70, Hang Seng declined 71.50 points or 0.40% to 17,996.50, Shanghai Composite weakened 18.66 points or 0.57% to 3,230.37, KOSPI dropped 24.27 points or 0.98% to 2,451.21, Jakarta Composite plunged 19.44 points or 0.28% to 6,876.22 and Nikkei 225 slipped 183.31 points or 0.67% to 27,513.13. However, Straits Times rose 11.62 points or 0.35% to 3,322.85.