Bourses once again add losses in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets once again enlarged their losses in late afternoon session following weak global cues. The overall market breadth was negative as 2273 shares were declining and 1137 were advancing, while 154 shares were unchanged on the BSE. Traders overlooked private report that the decision of India and the US to end their six trade disputes at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will help boost two-way commerce and strengthen economic ties. It also said that both the countries should put in place a proper and strong mechanism to resolve trade related issues bilaterally so that they do not have to file complaints in the WTO. On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red as a spate of rate hikes from policymakers in England, Norway and Switzerland pushed up global bond yields and revived fears of an imminent recession. European markets were trading lower as market sentiment turned risk-averse amid worries over further interest-rate rises. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 63,035.67, down by 203.22 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 62874.12 and 63240.63. 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 1.07%, while Small cap index was down by 0.98%.

The top losing sectoral indices on BSE were Consumer Durables down by 1.58%, Oil & Gas down by 1.48%, Metal down by 1.27%, Power down by 1.21% and Utilities was down by 1.21%, while there were the no gaining sectoral indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 2.88%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.02%, Asian Paints up by 1.57%, NTPC up by 1.33% and HCL Tech up by 0.30%. On the flip side, Tata Motors down by 1.75%, Power Grid down by 1.44%, SBI down by 1.23%, Tata Steel down by 1.08% and Titan Company down by 1.03% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Minister Jitendra Singh has expressed need for a mechanism to be put in place to follow up the progress of Startups as their number have risen to more than a lakh. He said that this is the age of innovation and ideas.

Singh added that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government is providing every kind of technical as well as financial support for ideas and innovations to grow and sustain.  As a result, India has emerged as the leading StartUp ecosystem in the world with more than one lakh StartUps and more than 100 Unicorns and the time has come to strategise sustainability.

Meanwhile, Union Minister chaired a high-level joint meeting of Science Ministries and Departments where it was projected that lack of innovation, lack of skilled workforce or lack of funds could possibly be the major factors adversely affecting the sustainability of some Startups. The Minister proposed that an exercise could be undertaken to assess whether the Startups could be identified by a ‘Unique ID’ for effective monitoring across all sectors.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18,681.25, down by 90.00 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 18647.10 and 18756.40. There were 13 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 2.93%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.04%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 2.02%, Asian Paints up by 1.60% and NTPC up by 1.30%. On the flip side, Adani Enterprises down by 6.86%, Adani Ports down by 4.02%, BPCL down by 3.44%, Hindalco down by 2.43% and HDFC Life Insurance down by 1.89% were the top losers.

Asian markets were traded in red, Nikkei 225 slipped 483.34 points or 1.47% to 32,781.54, Hang Seng declined 328.38 points or 1.74% to 18,889.97, Straits Times fell 29.53 points or 0.92% to 3,192.90, KOSPI dropped 23.6 points or 0.92% to 2,570.10 and Jakarta Composite was down by 4.46 points or 0.07% to 6,647.80.

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 10.4 points or 0.14% to 7,491.63, France’s CAC fell 18.9 points or 0.26% to 7,184.38 and Germany’s DAX was down by 100.64 points or 0.63% to 15,887.52.