Indices trade under pressure ahead of RBI’s policy rate decision

Indian equity benchmarks start the crucial session on negative note on Thursday as all eyes are on the outcome of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI's) monetary policy. The RBI's rate setting Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is widely expected to take a hawkish stance today as flaring vegetable prices upend the inflation math of the economy. Markets are trading under pressure with cut of around 0.25% each in early deals as selling in rate sensitive stocks weighted down on the sentiments. Some cautiousness also crept in amid concerns over the inflation data of the country as a private report indicated that the rate of price rise for the consumer basket likely breached the central bank's upper tolerance level of 6 per cent in July. 

On the global front most of the Asian markets are trading lower, following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders remained cautious ahead of the release of a key report on US consumer price inflation later in the day, which will offer clues on the outlook for interest rates. Besides, the Bank of Japan said producer prices in Japan were up 0.1 percent on month in July. Back home, coal industry stocks are in focus with a private report that India's total coal imports fell 1.82 per cent to 68.30 million tonne in April-June period of ongoing financial year. The import was at 69.57 MT in the same period a year ago. In stock specific development, IRCTC dropped on reporting a 5 percent fall in Q1 net profit.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 65807.57, down by 188.24 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 65758.15 and 65945.39. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.12%, while Small cap index was up by 0.46%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 0.88%, Power up by 0.73%, Industrials up by 0.31%, PSU up by 0.24% and Oil & Gas up by 0.21%, while FMCG down by 0.41%, Bankex down by 0.30%, Consumer Durables down by 0.28%, TECK down by 0.16% and IT down by 0.04% were top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 0.69%, Power Grid up by 0.58%, NTPC up by 0.57%, Ultratech Cement up by 0.49% and Wipro up by 0.49%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.48%, Nestle down by 0.75%, Tata Motors down by 0.71%, ITC down by 0.65% and Titan Company down by 0.54% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, marking as an important move, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said that the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill passed by the Parliament on August 09 is an important step to protect citizens’ rights and support innovation economy and governance. The Bill sets out norms for data processing digitally for firms, creates an adjudicatory mechanism for resolving disputes, and provides for the creation of a Data Protection Board of India.

A Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill was introduced in 2018 and tabled in 2019, after which it was referred to a joint parliamentary committee. The panel studied the bill for two years and presented its report and a modified PDP Bill in December 2021.

But in 2022, the government withdrew the PDP Bill, citing compliance-related reasons and came out with the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill after a few months. The cabinet approved the bill in July, clearing its way to be tabled in the ongoing monsoon session.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19590.45, down by 42.10 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 19568.35 and 19615.80. There were 20 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.21%, Adani Enterprises up by 1.15%, BPCL up by 0.99%, ONGC up by 0.79% and Cipla up by 0.76%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.56%, Britannia Industries down by 1.08%, Apollo Hospital down by 0.87%, Nestle down by 0.77% and Tata Consumer Products down by 0.74% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted lost 208.58 points or 1.25% to 16,662.36, Hang Seng declined 182.46 points or 0.96% to 19,063.57, KOSPI dropped 10.38 points or 0.4% to 2,594.74, Shanghai Composite weakened 8.59 points or 0.27% to 3,235.90 and Straits Times fell 4.83 points or 0.15% to 3,308.96. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 surged 218.7 points or 0.67% to 32,423.03 and Jakarta Composite was up by 12.04 points or 0.17% to 6,887.15.