Bourses witness some recovery in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets witnessed some recovery in late afternoon session but continued to trade in red mirroring the moves across global markets. However, broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index traded in green. The banking index is mainly up by IndusInd Bank. Traders remained fretted that the Federal Reserve might raise interest rates faster if pressure stays high on inflation. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell raised the possibility of the U.S. central bank returning to large rate hikes to tackle sticky inflation. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red as resilient U.S. economic data since start of this year had raised the possibility of the U.S. central bank returning to large rate hikes. European markets were trading mostly in red after sportswear firm Adidas dropped on plans to cut its annual dividend.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60189.19, down by 35.27 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 59844.82 and 60227.84. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.30%, while Small cap index was up by 0.09%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 1.61%, Power up by 1.41%, Capital Goods up by 0.93%, Industrials up by 0.79% and Oil & Gas was up by 0.68%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.71%, IT down by 0.69%, TECK down by 0.63%, Metal down by 0.57% and Healthcare was down by 0.56% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 3.88%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.02%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.01%, Tata Steel up by 0.80% and NTPC up by 0.65%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 2.22%, Sun Pharma down by 1.43%, Infosys down by 1.25%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.95% and HCL Tech down by 0.76% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, calling for renewed investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, innovation, R&D and quality, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal has said that the government, over the next two or three years, is expected to significantly ramp up focus on quality by bringing in reasonably strict and compulsory but practical quality standards on many more products so that Indian manufacturing is able to withstand irrational competition, increase the scale of production and become more competitive.

Commerce and Industry Minister also asked manufacturers, FMCG providers and the consumers to work collectively to revive Indian domestic manufacturing at scale, with high quality and at competitive prices, so that India once again provides a large amount of jobs, work opportunities, business opportunities, and meets the aspirations of 1.4 billion people.

The Minister opined that the FMCG sector will truly be a driver of economic growth and that moving forward, India will be an important consumer market. He called for the creation and strengthening of a virtuous circle with massive amounts of investment and focus both on the public sector and the private sector to create the necessary building blocks or infrastructure to help the Indian economy grow rapidly.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17709.40, down by 2.05 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 17602.25 and 17718.00. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 3.92%, Adani Enterprises up by 2.93%, Adani Ports up by 2.90%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.07% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.93%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 2.25%, Hindalco down by 1.70%, Infosys down by 1.34%, Sun Pharma down by 1.28% and Apollo Hospital down by 0.98% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red, Hang Seng declined 483.23 points or 2.41% to 20,051.25, Taiwan Weighted lost 39.69 points or 0.25% to 15,818.20, KOSPI dropped 31.44 points or 1.29% to 2,431.91, Straits Times fell 18.83 points or 0.58% to 3,226.44 and Shanghai Composite was down by 1.85 points or 0.06% to 3,283.25. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite gained 9.61 points or 0.14% to 6,776.37 and Nikkei 225 was up by 135.03 points or 0.47% to 28,444.19.

European markets were trading mostly in red, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 20.7 points or 0.26% to 7,898.78 and France’s CAC was down by 6.64 points or 0.09% to 7,332.63. On the flip side, Germany’s DAX was up by 13.21 points or 0.08% to 15,572.74.