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

Indian equity markets traded near day’s low points in late afternoon session on the accounts of selling in banking counter. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index traded with marginal losses. Traders were cautious ahead to release of minutes from the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting slated to be released on Wednesday. Geopolitical tensions remained on investors' radar after North Korea fired off two shortrange ballistic missiles. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green despite hawkish comments from ECB and Fed officials and rising geopolitical tensions after North Korea launched two ballistic missiles into waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula early in the day. European markets were trading higher with attention this week set to be on the publication of Federal Reserve meeting notes.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60636.57, down by 366.00 points or 0.60% after trading in a range of 60610.85 and 61290.19. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.09%, while Small cap index was down by 0.13%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 0.51%, IT up by 0.32% and TECK was up by 0.19%, while Bankex down by 1.19%, Oil & Gas down by 1.07%, Energy down by 0.97%, PSU down by 0.89% and Realty was down by 0.82% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Ultratech Cement up by 1.45%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.19%, Tata Motors up by 0.84%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.81% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.81%. On the flip side, SBI down by 1.59%, HDFC down by 1.41%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.28%, Axis Bank down by 1.26% and HDFC Bank down by 1.21% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Jitendra Singh has said that India has had a huge quantum jump in the global benchmarks with India being the fastest growing economy in the world having overtaken United Kingdom, jumping forty steps up in the global innovation index, ranking third in the Startup ecosystem having more than 90,000 Start-Ups from 250 in 2014 with 100 unicorns.

Singh further said ‘the per capita income has also doubled under the present government from last eight years with manifold increase in exports in almost every sector be that the mobile chip technology, defence, toy industry etc. with IMF rating saying that the world is looking at India as the bright spot giving self-esteem to all of us’.

Besides, Singh noted that the pro-business reforms unleashed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government in the last nine years is laying a strong foundation of New India, opening up new vistas for the business community, improving India’s rank in ease of doing business from 142 in 2014 to 63 in 2022, as per World Bank report.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17824.85, down by 119.35 points or 0.67% after trading in a range of 17819.35 and 18004.35. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Divi's Lab up by 2.62%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.42%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.17%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.91% and SBI Life up by 0.88%. On the flip side, Adani Enterprises down by 6.58%, Cipla down by 6.30%, Britannia down by 1.89%, BPCL down by 1.61% and SBI down by 1.59% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Hang Seng advanced 167.15 points or 0.8% to 20,886.96, Taiwan Weighted added 71.53 points or 0.46% to 15,551.23, Shanghai Composite strengthened 66.32 points or 2.02% to 3,290.34, Nikkei 225 surged 18.81 points or 0.07% to 27,531.94 and KOSPI was up by 3.91 points or 0.16% to 2,455.12. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite plunged 0.99 points or 0.01% to 6,894.72 and Straits Times was down by15.95 points or 0.48% to 3,312.42.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 6.91 points or 0.09% to 8,011.27, France’s CAC rose 4.18 points or 0.06% to 7,351.90 and Germany’s DAX was up by 5.76 points or 0.04% to 15,487.76.