Benchmarks continue to trade lower in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower in morning deals, taking cues from the Asian markets. Traders remained cautious with private report stating that private equity and venture capital funds' investment in the country continued to fall in May, with the overall values declining by nearly 44 per cent to $3.5 billion. Some concern also came with report  that the UK’s decision to withdraw duty benefit scheme GSP may impact Indian exporters from certain labour-intensive sectors such as leather and textiles as they were the major beneficiaries. The UK is replacing the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) with a new Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) from June 19. Meanwhile, the government has started interministerial discussions on the upcoming Insolvency and Bankruptcy (IBC) amendment Bill, which proposes an overhaul of the law. The Bill proposes a separate framework for real estate insolvency with certain exemptions. On the global front, Asian markets are trading lower as investors awaited Fed Chair Jerome Powell's testimonies and the Bank of England's rate decision due this week for clues on the monetary policy path ahead.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 62820.17, down by 348.13 points or 0.55% after trading in a range of 62819.36 and 63186.33. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.03%, while Small cap index was up by 0.15%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.76%, Power up by 0.18% and Utilities up by 0.09%, while Bankex down by 0.61%, FMCG down by 0.43%, Auto down by 0.39%, PSU down by 0.28% and Energy down by 0.25% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Wipro up by 0.80%, Tata Steel up by 0.79%, Power Grid Corporation up by 0.78%, Tech Mahindra up by 0.33% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.05%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finserv down by 2.21%, Bajaj Finance down by 2.06%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.59%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.08% and Sun Pharma down by 0.97% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India’s IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said that the Indian Government has set a goal of making technology 20-25 per cent of the nation’s GDP by 2025. He stated over the last nine years digital economy has expanded, diversified and currently there isn’t a slice or space in the tech sector that Indian entrepreneurs, Indian startups are not present in; whether it is semiconductors, micro-electronics, AI, the blockchain and web three high-performance computing languages and consumer internet.

Further, he said ‘Any part of technology that you look at today, there is significant presence and momentum by Indian startups, Indian enterprises and Indian innovators. Over the last five years, in particular, during and after COVID-19, the Indian innovation economy has grown from the four-five per cent in 2014 to ten per cent today.’

Moreover, he said ‘Our target is that technology and the digital economy would be 20 per cent of the total GDP, which also is growing at about eight per cent, 7.5 per cent per annum by 2025-2026. So, 20 per cent of our GDP, which will be about USD 5 trillion amounts to a trillion dollars and that is the goal that we are working on. That is the mission that Prime Minister Modi’s government is focused on.’

Besides, describing AI as a kinetic enabler of the digital economy, he said it is a very important and valuable layer on the progress that has been made by the startups and innovation ecosystem over the last several years around the consumer internet and the data economy. The government has branded the artificial intelligence programmes and schemes in the country as India AI.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18668.40, down by 87.05 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 18667.95 and 18761.20. There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were HDFC Life Insurance up by 2.00%, SBI Life Insurance up by 1.67%, JSW Steel up by 1.04%, Hindalco up by 0.79% and Power Grid Corporation up by 0.76%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finserv down by 2.28%, Bajaj Finance down by 2.06%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.53%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.24% and Sun Pharma down by 1.03% were the top losers.

All Asian markets are trading lower; Taiwan Weighted lost 113.91 points or 0.66% to 17,160.65, Hang Seng declined 303.86 points or 1.55% to 19,609.03, Shanghai Composite weakened 5.92 points or 0.18% to 3,249.89, KOSPI dropped 6.2 points or 0.24% to 2,603.30, Jakarta Composite plunged 29.86 points or 0.45% to 6,656.20, Straits Times fell 14.79 points or 0.46% to 3,226.38 and Nikkei 225 slipped 82.73 points or 0.25% to 33,287.69.