Weak trade continues over Dalal Street

Weak trade continued over the Dalal Street in early afternoon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty trading lower, amid heavy selling at Metal and Realty counters along with mixed cues from other Asian markets. Sentiments remained cautious, as Switzerland-based Financial Stability Board (FSB) warned that higher interest rates alongside a slowing growth outlook, could impair the capacity of borrowers to service historically high levels of debt. Besides, raising concerns over the street, credit rating agency S&P Global Ratings’ Economist (Asia Pacific) Vishrut Rana stated that Inflation in India is likely to remain elevated in the near terms but government policies will prevent it from rising further.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, even as Singapore's retail sales growth accelerated somewhat in July. The data from the Department of Statistics showed that retail sales climbed 1.1 percent year-over-year in July, just above the 1.0 percent gain in June. Excluding motor vehicles, retail sales rose only 0.4 percent annually in July after a 2.3 percent increase in the preceding month. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 65710.04, down by 70.22 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 65639.52 and 65870.70. 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 by 0.07%, while Small cap index was up by 0.11%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.73%, Oil & Gas up by 0.63%, Healthcare up by 0.62%, FMCG up by 0.58% and Energy up by 0.48%, while Metal down by 1.31%, Realty down by 0.71%, PSU down by 0.60%, IT down by 0.43% and Bankex down by 0.38% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 0.91%, HDFC Bank up by 0.81%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.72%, Titan Company up by 0.63% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.50%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.94%, NTPC down by 1.60%, Indusind Bank down by 1.43%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.27% and Axis Bank down by 1.07% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Power Minister R K Singh has quantified the pace of economic growth in the country in terms of rise of electricity demand, and said that India's power demand is about 40 GW-50 GW more than the corresponding day last year. He said India has the potential to be one of the biggest manufacturers of green hydrogen in the world. He said ‘we have this huge economy which will continue growing at 7 to 8 per cent for the next 2 to 3 decades. Our energy requirements are huge. Our power demand has grown up by 21 per cent in August 2023, as compared to August 2022.’

He stressed on the need to take effective measures to reduce huge energy import bills. He said ‘we have been huge energy importers. If we don't do something about this, our import bills will multiply. We have to set up a huge ecosystem for renewable energy. Our pace of capacity addition in renewable energy is one of the fastest in the world. Our cost of making renewable energy and our cost of producing green hydrogen will be one of the lowest in the world’.

Singh said that India will emerge as a huge exporter and the world will come to follow approach on green hydrogen. Talking about the environment, he said that India's contribution to the global carbon dioxide load is just four per cent while our population is 17 per cent. He said that India will come out with a pilot for green hydrogen or green ammonia for storage for round-the-clock renewable energy. He opined that most of the methods of running the pilots are already commercially viable. He added that there are already companies which have developed turbines which can use hydrogen or ammonia for making electricity.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19551.75, down by 23.15 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 19534.20 and 19604.85. There were 21 stocks advancing against 30 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Divi's Laboratories up by 1.15%, Sun Pharma up by 0.95%, Cipla up by 0.92%, Britannia up by 0.82% and HDFC Life Insurance up by 0.81%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.97%, Jio Financial Services down by 1.90%, Hindalco down by 1.77%, NTPC down by 1.58% and Indusind Bank down by 1.33% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Nikkei 225 surged 204.26 points or 0.61% to 33,241.02, Jakarta Composite gained 21.01 points or 0.3% to 7,012.72, Shanghai Composite strengthened 4.65 points or 0.15% to 3,159.02 and Hang Seng advanced 0.99 points or 0.01% to 18,457.90, while Straits Times fell 0.89 points or 0.03% to 3,225.94, KOSPI dropped 18.84 points or 0.73% to 2,563.34 and Taiwan Weighted lost 53.45 points or 0.32% to 16,738.16.