Domestic indices trade flat with negative bias amid weak global cues

Indian equity benchmarks made slightly negative start on Wednesday, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street as well as sell-off in the Asian counterparts, as traders remained cautious ahead of the release of a key US inflation data later in the day that could influence the outlook for interest rates. The continued spike in crude oil prices also weighed on sentiment. Markets are trading flat with negative bias in early deals. HDFC Life, M&M, ICICI Bank and Adani Ports were the leading laggards across the two benchmarks. Foreign fund outflows also dented sentiments. Provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed that foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth Rs 1,047.19 crore on September 12. Besides, broader indices - BSE Mid and Small cap indices are trading with cut of over half a percent each.

However, downside remained capped amid positive macroeconomic data. India’s retail inflation rate fell below the 7% mark in August. Data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed that the consumer price index (CPI)-based retail inflation eased to 6.83% in August, from a 15 month high of 7.44% in July, on account of moderation in the rate of price increase for vegetables, clothing & footwear, housing and services. Separately, factory output growth measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) accelerated to 5.7% in July, from 3.7% in June, driven by robust growth in mining, power and manufacturing sectors. 

On the sectoral front, metal stocks are in focus as the US allowed imports of 336,000 metric tonne of steel and aluminium from India without paying additional duties that were imposed under a national security law by the Trump administration. In stock specific development, KEC International jumped on bagging orders worth Rs 1,012 crore.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 67194.00, down by 27.13 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 67053.36 and 67296.97. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.78%, while Small cap index was down by 0.60%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Energy up by 0.36%, Oil & Gas up by 0.27% and FMCG up by 0.26%, while Realty down by 1.17%, Industrials down by 0.76%, Power down by 0.69%, Capital Goods down by 0.69% and Telecom down by 0.52% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 1.02%, Titan Company up by 0.62%, Wipro up by 0.54%, Ultratech Cement up by 0.54% and Nestle up by 0.47%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.82%, ICICI Bank down by 0.81%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.72%, SBI down by 0.71% and JSW Steel down by 0.62% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, SBI research in its latest report ‘Towards a Payroll Reporting in India’ has said that the economy has added around 5.2 crore new formal jobs between FY20 and FY23, with the net addition being 2.7 crore, citing the payroll data of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), the National Pension Scheme (NPS) and Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). It stated the EPFO payroll data trends for the past four years show that net new EPF subscriber addition during FY20-23 was 4.86 crore, which consists of new payroll (first payroll), second payroll (rejoined/resubscribed members) and formalised payrolls.  

Accordingly, the net new payroll (first job/fresh job) adjusted for re-joined/re-subscribed members and formalisation (based on ECR data), shows that the actual net new payroll was 2.27 crore during FY20-23. Of this, the first jobs were 47 per cent of the total net new payroll addition and the second jobs (the exited members who re-joined and re-subscribed) stood at 2.17 crore during these four years. This means that the net increase in formalisation was at 42 lakh in these years. 

Further, it said if the Q1 EPFO payroll data of FY24 looked at the trend, it is encouraging as 44 lakh net new EPF subscribers joined, of which the first payroll was 19.2 lakh. If the trend continues for the rest of FY24, then the net new payroll will cross the 160 lakh mark, which will be the highest ever with the first payroll in the range of 70-80 lakh. Besides, it said NPS data indicate that 8.24 lakh new subscribers in FY23, of which state government payrolls stood at 4.64 lakh, followed by non-government jobs of 2.30 lakh and 1.29 in the central government. During the past four years, around 31 lakh new subscribers joined the NPS. That means, cumulatively, total payroll generation of the EPFO and NPS was more than 5.2 crore during FY20-23.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19972.45, down by 20.75 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 19944.10 and 20021.95. There were 23 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Grasim Industries up by 2.04%, Coal India up by 0.94%, ITC up by 0.75%, Ultratech Cement up by 0.67% and Britannia Industries up by 0.62%. On the flip side, HDFC Life Insurance down by 1.34%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 0.86%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.82%, ICICI Bank down by 0.77% and SBI down by 0.76% were the top losers.

All Asian markets are trading lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 137.75 points or 0.42% to 32,638.62, Hang Seng declined 36.49 points or 0.20% to 17,989.40, Shanghai Composite weakened 27.18 points or 0.87% to 3,109.88, Taiwan Weighted lost 24 points or 0.14% to 16,548.71, Jakarta Composite fell 18.55 points or 0.27% to 6,915.42, KOSPI dropped 6.59 points or 0.26% to 2,529.99 and Straits Times was down by 3.57 points or 0.11% to 3,210.89.