Sensex, Nifty turn negative in early noon deals

In a volatile session, Indian equity benchmarks turned negative in early noon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty trading lower, impacted by heavy selling at Realty and IT counters along with negative cues from other Asian markets. Traders also cautiously await the first monetary policy decisions of the year from major global central banks. Sentiments remained subdued amid reports that the cost of Indian exports has more than doubled due to the Yemeni Houthi militia's attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after Japan's machine tool orders declined for the twelfth straight month in December due to weak domestic and foreign demand. The preliminary data from the Japan Machine Tool Builders Association, or JMTBA, showed that machine tool orders fell 9.9 percent year-on-year in December, which was slower than the 13.6 percent plunge in the previous month.

Back home, power sector remained in watch, after the Ministry of Power introduced new rules with an aim to facilitate ease of doing business for industries like Green Hydrogen manufacturers and to facilitate energy transition along with energy security by faster establishment of energy storage capacity.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 73269.89, down by 58.05 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 73101.01 and 73427.59. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose by 0.02%, while Small cap index was up by 0.01%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.42%, Consumer Durables up by 0.98%, Energy up by 0.74%, PSU up by 0.51% and Industrials up by 0.31%, while Realty down by 1.48%, IT down by 1.00%, Utilities down by 0.88%, TECK down by 0.84% and Power down by 0.82% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Titan up by 1.90%, Tata Motors up by 1.45%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.33%, Asian Paints up by 1.20% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.87%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 1.97%, HCL Tech. down by 1.93%, NTPC down by 1.69%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.43% and Sun Pharma down by 1.15% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Power has introduced new rules with an aim to facilitate ease of doing business for industries like Green Hydrogen manufacturers and to facilitate energy transition along with energy security by faster establishment of energy storage capacity. 

Now consumers, having more than a specified quantum of load and Energy Storage Systems (ESS) are allowed to establish, operate and maintain dedicated transmission lines themselves without the requirement of licence. By allowing such facility a new category of Bulk Consumers would emerge in the country, benefiting from more affordable electricity and enhanced grid reliability. This facility was already available to generating companies and captive generating stations.

The new rule prescribes that a generating company or a person setting up a captive generating plant or an Energy Storage System or a consumer having load of not less than twenty five Megawatt in case of Inter State Transmission System and ten Megawatt in case of Intra-State Transmission System shall not be required to obtain licence for establishing, operating or maintaining a dedicated transmission line to connect to the grid, if such company or person or consumer complies with the Regulations, technical standards, guidelines and procedures issued under the provisions of the Act.

Open Access is one of the key features of Electricity Act, 2003. However, due to very high Open Access charges levied by some State Regulators this facility of Open Access could not be utilised by the consumers to the desired level. Open Access charges must be reasonable and uniform throughout the country to facilitate the consumers like commercial establishments and industries in getting electricity through Open Access at competitive and reasonable rates. To rationalise the open access charges new rules have been prescribed with methodologies for determining various open access charges like wheeling charges, state transmission charges and additional surcharge.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22075.50, down by 21.95 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 22029.20 and 22124.15. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 3.84%, Titan up by 1.89%, Tata Motors up by 1.38%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.32% and Asian Paints up by 1.25%. On the flip side, Divi's Lab down by 2.09%, HCL Tech. down by 2.01%, Wipro down by 1.97%, NTPC down by 1.67% and Tech Mahindra down by 1.38% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 342.94 points or 2.16% to 15,873.39, Nikkei 225 slipped 282.61 points or 0.79% to 35,619.18, Taiwan Weighted decreased 199.95 points or 1.15% to 17,346.87, KOSPI slipped 28.40 points or 1.14% to 2,497.59, Straits Times slipped 14.04 points or 0.44% to 3,185.38 and Shanghai Composite weakened 7.12 points or 0.25% to 2,879.17, while Jakarta Composite gained 31.3 points or 0.43% to 7,255.30.