Bourses trade near day’s low points in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets traded near day’s low points in late afternoon session dragged down by IT and banking counters amid an overall weak global market trends. The banking index is mainly dragged by Indusind Bank and SBI. Traders have recently expressed concerns over Federal Reserve will raise rates higher than currently anticipated in an effort to combat inflation. Besides, benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield climbed on Friday. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red as hotter-than-expected U.S. producer price data coupled with hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials stoked worries about further interest-rate hikes. European markets were trading lower on fears that central banks will continue their aggressive monetary tightening, while the corporate earnings season continued.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60917.88, down by 401.63 points or 0.65% after trading in a range of 60810.67 and 61302.72. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was declined 0.61%, while Small cap index was down by 0.17%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.27%, Industrials up by 0.65%, Oil & Gas up by 0.27% and Energy was up by 0.24%, while Realty down by 1.84%, Bankex down by 1.51%, Telecom down by 1.33%, TECK down by 1.14% and IT was down by 1.01% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 2.52%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.30%, Tata Steel up by 0.58%, NTPC up by 0.57% and Asian Paints up by 0.43%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 3.17%, Nestle down by 2.83%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.10%, SBI down by 1.92% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.79% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made necessary changes in National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) and Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) systems for Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) related transactions, with the Home Ministry mandating State Bank of India (SBI) to report all details of overseas donors, including purpose of remittances on daily basis. Under the FCRA, foreign contributions must be received only in the ‘FCRA account’ of SBI, New Delhi Main Branch (NDMB).

The contributions to the FCRA account are received directly from foreign banks through SWIFT and from Indian intermediary banks through NEFT and RTGS systems. The RBI said in terms of extant requirements of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the donor details such as name, address, country of origin, amount, currency, and purpose of remittance are required to be captured in such transactions and SBI is required to report the same to MHA on daily basis. The instructions will be effective from March 15, 2023.

RBI has asked banks to incorporate necessary changes in their core banking/ middleware solutions to capture the requisite details while forwarding the foreign donations through NEFT and RTGS systems to SBI. Since the Narendra Modi led-government came to power in 2014, rules related to the FCRA have been tightened and it also cancelled FCRA registration of nearly 2,000 Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) for violating various provisions of law. There were 22,762 FCRA-registered organisations till December-end 2021.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17926.30, down by 109.55 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 17884.60 and 18034.25. There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Larsen & Toubro up by 2.63%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.22%, BPCL up by 1.81%, Grasim Industries up by 1.25% and Coal India up by 1.09%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 3.05%, Nestle down by 2.95%, Adani Enterprises down by 2.71%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.15% and SBI down by 1.95% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red, Hang Seng declined 267.86 points or 1.29% to 20,719.81, Nikkei 225 slipped 183.31 points or 0.67% to 27,513.13, Taiwan Weighted lost 70.8 points or 0.46% to 15,479.70, Shanghai Composite weakened 25.01 points or 0.78% to 3,224.02 and KOSPI was down by 24.27 points or 0.99% to 2,451.21. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite gained 0.05 points or 0% to 6,895.71 and Straits Times was up by 16.33 points or 0.49% to 3,327.56.

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 52.52 points or 0.66% to 7,960.01, France’s CAC fell 98.39 points or 1.34% to 7,267.77 and Germany’s DAX was down by 228.49 points or 1.47% to 15,305.15.