Domestic equities trade under pressure in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made a flat start on Wednesday tracking overnight fall on Wall Street and mixed cues from Asian counterparts as unease over the slow progress of US debt talks further dampened sentiment, while Japan's economy expanded more than expected in the first quarter. Domestic indices are trading lower with marginal cut in early deals due to selling in Realty, Information Technology and Teck stocks. Some cautiousness came in as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said a slight delay is expected in the onset of the southwest monsoon over Kerala and it is likely to arrive by June 4. 

Markets are struggling for direction amid mixed set of corporate results from Indian corporates. LIC Housing Finance tumbled despite reporting a 5 percent increase in Q4 net profit. Jindal Steel and Power fell on posting a nearly 70 percent decline in its consolidated net profit for the March quarter. On the other hand, Bharti Airtel rose after it beat estimates with a 50 percent surge in Q4 net profit. IOC gained after its quarterly profit jumped 55 percent on the back of a rise in gross refining margins.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61,826.29, down by 106.18 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 61,979.94 and 61,793.58. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.23%, while Small cap index was up by 0.49%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Industrials up by 0.74%, Capital Goods up by 0.68%, Commodities up by 0.33%, Services up by 0.28% and Auto up by 0.25%, while Realty down by 0.60%, Information Technology down by 0.41%, Teck down by 0.36%, Utilities down by 0.19% and Power down by 0.16% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 1.02%, Indusind Bank up by 0.73%, Ultratech Cement up by 0.71%, Larsen & Toubro up by 0.67% and ITC up by 0.48%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 0.83%, HCL Technologies down by 0.78%, Infosys down by 0.72%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.71% and Hindustan Uniliver down by 0.64% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that a slight delay is expected in the onset of the southwest monsoon over Kerala and it is likely to arrive by June 4. The southwest monsoon normally sets in over Kerala on June 1, with a standard deviation of about 7 days. The monsoon arrived in the southern state on May 29 last year, June 3 in 2021, June 1 in 2020, June 8 in 2019, and May 29 in 2018. 

However, IMD chief M Mohapatra has said that the delay is unlikely to impact Kharif sowing and total rainfall over the country. He said ‘There is no one-to-one relationship between the onset date and the total rainfall over the country during the season. Also, the monsoon arriving early or late in Kerala doesn't mean it will cover other parts of the country accordingly. The monsoon is characterised by largescale variabilities and global, regional, and local features’.  

The IMD had last month said India is expected to get normal rainfall during the southwest monsoon season despite the evolving El Nino conditions. El Nino, which is the warming of the waters in the Pacific Ocean near South America, is generally associated with the weakening of monsoon winds and dry weather in India. India has already seen four consecutive years of 'normal' and 'above-normal' rains during the monsoon season.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18259.90, down by 26.60 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 18249.45 and 18309.00. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hero MotoCorp up by 1.29%, BPCL up by 1.27%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.11%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.96% and Cipla up by 0.78%. On the flip side, HDFC Life Insurance down by 1.11%, Eicher Motors down by 0.84%, Infosys down by 0.78%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.73% and Tata Consumer Products down by 0.71% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Nikkei 225 surged 243.23 points or 0.82% to 30,086.22, Taiwan Weighted added 197.49 points or 1.26% to 15,871.39 and KOSPI increased 13.00 points or 0.52% to 2,493.24. On the other hand, Hang Seng declined 110.38 points or 0.55% to 19,867.87, Straits Times fell 26.92 points or 0.84% to 3,187.12, Jakarta Composite plunged 11.6 points or 0.17% to 6,664.96 and Shanghai Composite was down by 7.71 points or 0.23% to 3,283.28.