Benchmarks extend losses in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks extended losses in morning deals, amid a sluggish trend in other Asian markets. Traders remained cautious as India’s retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to a three-month high of 5.55 per cent in November 2023 on firming food prices, including vegetables and cereals. Though it remains within the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) comfort zone of less than 6 per cent. Some concern also came with former RBI Governor Raghuram G Ranjan’s statement that Indian economy, dubbed the fastest growing major economy in the world, is faced with the single most important pressure point of job creation. Traders paid no heed towards Finance Minister Nirmala Sitahraman’s statement that the economy is moving in the right direction, and India has become the fastest-growing major economy in the world. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red as investors digested lackluster U.S. inflation data and awaited the final Federal Reserve decision of the year. U.S. core inflation rose last month, raising concerns that the U.S. central bank might not be quick to declare a win in its policy efforts. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 69240.05, down by 310.98 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 69223.16 and 69655.83. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

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

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 0.83%, Utilities up by 0.27%, Healthcare up by 0.14%, Power up by 0.14% and Capital Goods up by 0.13%, while IT down by 1.44%, TECK down by 1.36%, Consumer Durables down by 0.65%, Oil & Gas down by 0.59% and Energy down by 0.47% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 2.51%, Power Grid Corporation up by 1.51%, ITC up by 0.53%, Larsen & Toubro up by 0.36% and Indusind Bank up by 0.32%. On the flip side, TCS down by 2.18%, Infosys down by 2.10%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.68%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.31% and Tech Mahindra down by 1.29% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, bucking the downward trend, India’s retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to a three-month high of 5.55 per cent in November 2023 on firming food prices, including vegetables and cereals. Though it remains within the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) comfort zone of less than 6 per cent. The RBI has been tasked by the government to ensure retail inflation remains at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side. CPI was 4.87 per cent in October 2023 and 5.88 per cent in November 2022. The previous high was 6.83 per cent in August 2023 and inflation had been on a decline since then.

As per the data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI), the consumer food price inflation (CFPI) or inflation in the food basket rose to 8.7 per cent in November as against 6.6 per cent in the previous month and 4.6 per cent in November last year. Food basket has about 50 per cent weightage in CPI. The data also showed that Rural CPI (General) in November 2023 stood at 5.85 per cent as against 5.12 per cent in October. The Urban CPI (General) stood at 5.26 per cent in November as against 4.62 per cent in October. The index value for Rural, Urban and Combined CPI (General) stood at 188.2, 184.2 and 186.3 respectively, in November 2023.

As per the data, Pulses prices surged to 20.23 per cent, vegetables inflation reached 17.70 per cent, and fruit prices rose by about 10.95 per cent year-on-year during November. Cereals inflation remained stubborn at 10.27 per cent in November, while meat and fish inflation fell to 2.15 per cent. Milk inflation dropped to 5.75 per cent, and egg prices grew 5.90 per cent. Sugar and confectionary prices accelerated to 6.55 per cent, while spices inflation slightly eased to 21.55 per cent. Oils and fats prices recorded a drop of 15.03 per cent year-on-year in November.

The price data are collected from selected 1114 urban Markets and 1181 villages covering all States/UTs through personal visits by field staff of Field Operations Division of NSO, MoSPI on a weekly roster. During the month of November 2023, NSO collected prices from 99.9 per cent villages and 98.6 per cent urban markets while the market-wise prices reported therein were 90.0 per cent for rural and 92.2 per cent for urban.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 20804.40, down by 102.00 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 20804.05 and 20936.00. There were 12 stocks advancing against 38 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 2.43%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.51%, Power Grid Corporation up by 1.51%, Eicher Motors up by 0.87% and BPCL up by 0.63%. On the flip side, TCS down by 2.23%, Infosys down by 2.21%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 2.18%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.79% and LTIMindtree down by 1.59% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted lost 3.02 points or 0.02% to 17,447.61, Hang Seng declined 121.83 points or 0.75% to 16,252.67, Straits Times fell 1.7 points or 0.05% to 3,100.61, KOSPI dropped 17.65 points or 0.7% to 2,517.62, Jakarta Composite plunged 42.78 points or 0.6% to 7,082.53 and Shanghai Composite weakened 14.29 points or 0.48% to 2,989.15.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 surged 146.83 points or 0.45% to 32,990.53.