Bourses continue to show sluggish trend in late afternoon session

In a volatile trading session, Indian equity markets continued to show a sluggish trend in late afternoon session amid caution ahead of F&O expiry. Traders were worried as the U.S. Senate Banking Committee due to hold a hearing on the recent banking sector turmoil later in the day. Traders ignored that U.S. regulators’ statement that they would backstop a deal for regional lender First Citizens BancShares to acquire failed Silicon Valley Bank, triggering an estimated $20 billion hit to a government-run insurance fund. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green as concerns over the banking crisis eased and China's top leaders pledged to keep embracing foreign capital despite economic and geopolitical headwinds. European markets were trading higher lifted by commodity and banking shares, after a buyout deal for failed Silicon Valley Bank raised hopes that the banking crisis would be contained.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57530.95, down by 122.91 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 57494.91 and 57949.45. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.73%, while Small cap index was down by 0.92%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom down by 1.67%, Utilities down by 1.25%, Oil & Gas down by 1.21%, Power down by 1.14% and Realty was down by 1.01%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 1.59%, HDFC Bank up by 0.61%, Power Grid up by 0.52%, ICICI Bank up by 0.51% and HDFC up by 0.40%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 2.92%, Tata Motors down by 2.14%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.71%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.52% and Larsen & Toubro down by 1.33% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to boost rural employment, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) is all set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with 19 Captive Employers and provide them the target to train and provide gainful employment to 31,067 rural poor youths under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) with minimum salary of Rs 10000/per month for the minimum period of 6 months.

As per the notification released by the Ministry of Rural Development, MoRD launched the Captive employment Guidelines under DDU-GKY to ensure that the candidates are trained as per the industry requirement and employed. The Captive Employment model allows the employer to select the rural youths, skill & deploy them in one of its own establishment/sister-concern/subsidiaries.

Besides, it said that the Captive Employment Guidelines will increase the direct involvement of the industry due to the benefits provided to the industries for encouraging them to participate in the DDU-GKY program thereby ensuring the large quantity employment for rural youths.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16927.60, down by 58.10 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 16913.75 and 17061.75. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 1.77%, UPL up by 1.31%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 0.88%, Power Grid up by 0.61% and Hindalco up by 0.56%. On the flip side, Adani Enterprises down by 7.72%, Adani Ports down by 6.24%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.95%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.59% and ONGC down by 2.30% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green, Hang Seng advanced 216.96 points or 1.1% to 19,784.65, Jakarta Composite gained 51.4 points or 0.76% to 6,760.33, Nikkei 225 surged 41.38 points or 0.15% to 27,518.25, KOSPI increased 25.72 points or 1.06% to 2,434.94 and Straits Times was up by 14.16 points or 0.44% to 3,253.19. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite weakened 6.02 points or 0.19% to 3,245.38 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 128.83 points or 0.82% to 15,701.48.

European markets were trading higher, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 23.64 points or 0.32% to 7,495.41, France’s CAC rose 27.23 points or 0.38% to 7,105.50 and Germany’s DAX was up by 46.48 points or 0.31% to 15,174.16.