Bears hold tight grip over Dalal Street

Bears were holding a tight grip over Dalal Street, with both Sensex and Nifty remaining under pressure, amid heavy selling at Utilities, Power and Realty counters, despite positive cues from other Asian markets. Traders remained pessimistic, as growth in factory output, based on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), slowed to 3.8 per cent in January 2024, mainly due to poor performance of manufacturing, mining and power sectors. It was 5.8 in January 2023. 

Traders took a note of reports that in an effort to elevate the existing economic and commercial relations further, India has signed the protocol for establishment of Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) with Dominican Republic at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MIREX) of Dominican Republic at Santo Domingo on March 12, 2024.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green, after Malaysia's retail sales growth accelerated in January after easing in the previous two months. The data from the statistical office showed that the value of retail sales logged an annual growth of 5.4 percent in January, following a 4.8 percent gain in December. Retail sales at non-specialised stores grew 2.2 percent from last year, and sales of other goods in specialised stores advanced by 4.9 percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 73025.80, down by 642.16 points or 0.87% after trading in a range of 72912.29 and 74052.75. There were 5 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 2.96%, while Small cap index was down by 3.94%.

The only gaining sectoral index on the BSE was FMCG up by 0.36%, while Utilities down by 5.59%, Power down by 4.96%, Realty down by 4.51%, PSU down by 4.16% and Telecom down by 3.91% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ITC up by 5.29%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.83%, ICICI Bank up by 0.67%, Nestle up by 0.10% and Bajaj Finance up by 0.04%. On the flip side, Power Grid down by 5.58%, NTPC down by 5.23%, Tata Steel down by 3.94%, Titan down by 3.11% and Bharti Airtel down by 2.90% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry minister Piyush Goyal has exuded confidence that during this fiscal (FY24), the country's goods and services export numbers will be at the same level; as it was last year despite slowdown and uncertainties in the global trade. He also said that the government measures such production-linked incentives (PLI) schemes and focus on high-quality goods and services would help in containing the country's trade deficit. He said ‘so our trade deficit will be significantly lower than last year.’

The minister said the war between Russia and Ukraine; Israel-Hamas is impacting global supply chains and the Red Sea crisis has led to significant increase in transportation costs and delay as Indian exporters have to send their consignments through the Cape of Good Hope, encircling Africa. He said that India saw a scorching pace of growth in its international trade in the years between 2021 and 2023. He said ‘we grew by 55 per cent over a period of two years, both in goods and in services. It went up to $776 billion in only two years. And with growth on both goods and services, we could clearly see that this year is going to be one where we will have to consolidate the gains.’

Cumulatively, the country's merchandise exports in April-January 2023-24 contracted by 4.89 per cent to $353.92 billion. The estimated value of services exports during the ten-month period stood at $84.45 billion. In 2022-23, India's goods and services exports stood at $776 billion.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22095.00, down by 240.70 points or 1.08% after trading in a range of 22040.70 and 22446.75. There were 6 stocks advancing against 44 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ITC up by 5.28%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.92%, ICICI Bank up by 0.65%, Cipla up by 0.13% and Britannia Inds up by 0.06%. On the flip side, Adani Enterprises down by 5.83%, Power Grid Corp down by 5.63%, Adani Ports &Special down by 5.30%, NTPC down by 5.22% and Coal India down by 4.90% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted added 13.96 points or 0.07% to 19,928.51, Jakarta Composite gained 26.16 points or 0.35% to 7,408.07, Straits Times rose 20.56 points or 0.65% to 3,162.03 and KOSPI increased 11.76 points or 0.44% to 2,693.57, while Hang Seng declined 4.93 points or 0.03% to 17,088.57, Shanghai Composite weakened 11.33 points or 0.37% to 3,044.61 and Nikkei 225 slipped 101.54 points or 0.26% to 38,695.97.