Benchmarks continue to trade lower in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower in morning deals, amid selling pressure from foreign institutional investors and tracking cues from Asian markets. Foreign institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 79.88 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data. Some concern came after Moody's Investors Service issued a negative outlook for global banks in 2024, attributing the negativity to the repercussions of central banks' tightening of monetary policies. However, losses remain capped as Industry chamber CII expects the country's economy to grow at 6.8% in the current fiscal and accelerate to 7 per cent in 2024-25, driven by the government's continued focus on infrastructure development and promotion of ease of doing business. On the global front, Asian markets are trading lower as energy stocks tumbled amid a sharp fall in crude oil prices and traders reacted to some economic data emerging from the region, including from Australia and China. Traders are also reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of the US monthly jobs report on Friday. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 69446.70, down by 207.03 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 69320.53 and 69695.33. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.27%, while Small cap index was up by 0.32%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 1.88%, Power up by 1.50%, Auto up by 0.74%, Oil & Gas up by 0.58% and Consumer discretionary up by 0.52%, while FMCG down by 0.79%, Metal down by 0.40%, TECK down by 0.27%, Bankex down by 0.26% and Realty down by 0.09% were the top losing indices on BSE. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid Corporation up by 2.47%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.29%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.22%, NTPC up by 0.62% and Bajaj Finserv up by 0.58%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.12%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.02%, ICICI Bank down by 1.29%, ITC down by 0.94% and Sun Pharma down by 0.76% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran has said that India requires high economic growth to invest in energy transition. He stated the country needs the time to move away from coal towards other fossil fuels, and later on towards other renewable energy.  

Further, he stated India is well ahead of other G20 countries in meeting the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) target. NDCs are national action plans adopted by various countries to limit the earth's average temperature rise to well below two degrees Celsius and preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial (19850-1900) levels. He added ‘You will have to use coal for quite some time.’

Besides, he noted that the fear of carbon emissions is driving the West, particularly, Europe towards the impossible trinity of net zero, fiscal prudence and economic competitiveness. Earlier this month, India and China refrained from signing the pledge at the COP28 climate summit to triple the world's renewable energy capacity by 2030, even though New Delhi is already committed to it as part of its G20 presidency.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 20885.60, down by 52.10 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 20850.80 and 20941.25. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Power Grid Corporation up by 2.41%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.23%, Adani Ports &SEZ up by 2.20%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.26% and Eicher Motors up by 1.21%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.33%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.18%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.13%, ICICI Bank down by 1.27% and Apollo Hospital down by 1.15% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 620.93 points or 1.86% to 32,824.97, Taiwan Weighted lost 74.01 points or 0.43% to 17,286.71, Hang Seng declined 241.07 points or 1.49% to 16,222.19, Straits Times fell 23.99 points or 0.78% to 3,063.25, KOSPI dropped 1.20 points or 0.05% to 2,494.18, Jakarta Composite plunged 17.43 points or 0.25% to 7,069.97 and Shanghai Composite weakened 8.6 points or 0.29% to 2,960.33.