Friday turns out to be yet another lackluster day for Dalal Street

It was yet another lackluster day for the Dalal Street, with both Sensex and Nifty closing below their neutral lines for a sixth consecutive session, with mixed global cues and a rebound in oil prices kept investors nervous. After a positive start, markets remained higher during morning deals, as some support came in after the finance ministry stated that the Indian economy is estimated to grow by 7 per cent year-on-year in the current fiscal despite the global economy operating under an extremely challenging macroeconomic environment. Traders got some encouragement as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pitched for a global framework to regulate cryptocurrencies, besides firming up ways to tackle global debt vulnerabilities and strengthening multilateral development banks during bilateral meetings with her counterparts, including from US and Japan, ahead of the G-20 meeting.

However, trade turned negative during the afternoon deals and remained weak till the end of the trading session, as market participants got cautious, after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that the responsibility for the trade imbalance with China rests squarely on businesses as well, blaming Indian corporates for not developing the right sourcing arrangements. On the sectoral front, stocks related to the apparel sector remained in focus, after the Apparel Export Promotion Council’s (AEPC) Chairman Naren Goenka expressed confidence that in the coming years, the apparel sector will be able to support the government's efforts to make India a $2 trillion ($1 trillion goods and $1 trillion services) export target by 2030.

On the global front, European markets were trading mostly in red, as France's consumer confidence dropped slightly in February, reflecting moderate weakness in households' assessment about financial situation. The survey results from the statistical office INSEE showed that the consumer confidence index fell to 82 in February from revised 83 in January. The score was forecast to fall to 80. Asian markets settled mostly lower, as Japan's consumer price inflation accelerated further in January to hit a fresh 41-year high, adding pressure on the central bank to withdraw its massive monetary stimulus. The data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed that core inflation that excludes volatile fresh food climbed to 4.2 percent in January from 4.0 percent in the previous month.

Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 141.87 points or 0.24% to 59,463.93 and the CNX Nifty was down by 45.45 points or 0.26% to 17,465.80.

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 59,908.77 and 59,325.34, respectively. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined by 0.17%, while Small cap index was down by 0.15%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 0.44%, Oil & Gas up by 0.37%, Consumer Durables up by 0.28%, Healthcare up by 0.24% and PSU up by 0.04%, while Metal down by 2.39%, Auto down by 0.99%, Realty down by 0.70%, Capital Goods down by 0.69% and Telecom down by 0.56% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 1.20%, Bajaj Finserv up by 0.84%, NTPC up by 0.83%, Power Grid up by 0.82% and Reliance Industries up by 0.77%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.39%, Tata Steel down by 1.88%, Tata Motors down by 1.27%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.20% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.98% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor -- D Subbarao has said there was not 'sufficient emphasis' on jobs in the Budget for 2023-24 and it failed to grapple with the unemployment problem head on, except to believe that growth itself will generate jobs. He noted that the unemployment problem was quite bad even before the Covid and it has become alarming as a result of the pandemic.

According to Subbarao, roughly a million people join the labour force every month and India is not able to create even half as many jobs. He added, as a result, the unemployment problem is not just growing but is becoming a crisis.

He pointed out that India will be able to take advantage of demographic dividend only if, ‘we are able to find productive employment for the burgeoning labour force.’ He also said that the biggest takeaways from the FY24 budget are the government's emphasis on growth and its commitment to fiscal responsibility contrary to the widely held pre-budget view that the finance minister will go full blast on populist measures because of electoral calculations.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 17,599.75 and 17,421.80. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Divi's Lab up by 1.46%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.28%, Asian Paints up by 1.20%, Coal India up by 1.00% and Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 0.93%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 4.86%, Adani Enterprises down by 4.85%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.57%, JSW Steel down by 2.32% and Tata Steel down by 2.05% were the top losers.

European markets were trading mostly in red; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 26.43 points or 0.33% to 7,934.15, France’s CAC fell 5.11 points or 0.07% to 7,312.32 and Germany’s DAX lost 29.96 points or 0.19% to 15,445.73.

Asian markets settled mostly lower on Friday due to lingering worries over US interest rates, while many investors are also cautiously awaiting the release of the US personal consumption expenditures price index for January later in the day to gauge the Fed's rate-hike stance. Asian equities weakened further, despite Wall Street gains overnight after better than expected fourth quarter profits announced by chip maker Nvidia. Chinese shares declined as China reiterated its calls for a political settlement to the Ukraine war. However, Japanese shares gained in spite of data that showed Japan's core inflation rate hit a four-decade high of 4.2 percent in January. The incoming head of Japan's central bank said he didn’t think the relatively high inflation rate would last and the central bank should continue its loose monetary policy.