Markets trim opening losses to trade flat in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks extended their previous session’s sell-off with negative start on Thursday amid weakness on Wall Street overnight as investors booked profits in chipmaker stocks. Domestically, Sensex and Nifty soon trimmed their losses and are trading flat in early deals supported by bargain hunting at Telecom, Utilities, Power and Oil & Gas counters. Investors are eyeing the WPI inflation data for February to be out later in the day for more directional cues. Initially, there was cautiousness amid foreign fund outflows. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 4,595.06 crore on March 13, provisional data from the NSE showed. However, traders took note of report that NITI Aayog has proposed a series of measures to boost exports from micro, small and medium enterprises, including boosting e-commerce exports, creating a comprehensive trade portal, promoting ease of merchandise exports, improving access to export finance and creation of one stop information channel for exporters.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets are trading higher with marginal gains as traders were cautious and remained on the sidelines ahead of some key U.S. retail sales, producer price inflation and weekly jobless claims data due later in the day, which may shed additional light on the outlook for interest rates. Back home, sugar stocks are buzzing after industry body Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) revised the sugar production estimate for 2023-24 upwards to 34 million tonnes; up by 2.9% from its earlier estimate of 33.05 million tonnes issued in January this year. In stock specific development, HAL advances 2% on order win worth Rs 8,073 crore. On the other hand, Federal bank sink as RBI restricts issuance of co-branded credit cards.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 72717.85, down by 44.04 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 72497.19 and 72775.43. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.76%, while Small cap index was up by 1.42%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.94%, Utilities up by 1.89%, Power up by 1.50%, Oil & Gas up by 1.37% and Industrials up by 1.15%, while Realty down by 1.15%, Bankex down by 0.41% and IT down by 0.05% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.54%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.12%, Infosys up by 0.95%, Reliance Industries up by 0.53% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.52%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.57%, JSW Steel down by 1.56%, TCS down by 1.09%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.07% and Titan Company down by 0.91% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, expressing cautiousness, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran has said he is “worried” over retail investors’ play in risky Futures and Options (F&O) segment in search of instant profits. He said the biggest threat to sustainable capital formation and also sustainable economic growth is the “short-termism” in attitudes that the country is afflicted with. Bemoaning the “furore” caused every time, there is a discussion on allowing corporate groups to promote banks despite the need for capital in a growing economy, he said India Inc needs to reflect on the state of corporate governance practices and analyse its own conduct.

He added that it is “puzzling” to see that a country otherwise blessed with a “deep spiritual heritage and wisdom” is actually interpreting mindfulness and living in the present in the wrong ways. He ruled that even now, people are mentioning handsome growth in F&O volumes, despite Sebi’s own studies suggesting that 90 per cent of trades in the riskier segment leading to losses for investors. making it clear that those two concepts stress on performing one’s duty and obligations without thinking about the fruits of the actions, he said ‘Our actions make me worry that we may be interpreting mindfulness and living in the present as being myopic’.

He said there is a need to change the outlook from a behaviourial perspective to achieve goals like long-term capital formation and growth. He ruled that there is an “adversarial” attitude among many stakeholders when it comes to regulators, wherein people overlook the fact a regulator’s job is to have a long-term view of things and “providing counterbalance for instant gratification or myopia”. He said ‘The underline focus that the regulators have is to ensure that we stay stronger for longer rather than get caught up in the immediate euphoria of our growth rates, market valuations’. Amid concerns that the activity in the F&O segment is fuelled by those seeking quick profits, he said the rising exposure of small investors in the segment “is a worry because we don’t want to go through boom and bust cycles again and again”.

Nageswaran said the economy is likely to grow 7 per cent in FY25 as well, which will make it the third year in a row when the GDP has grown at over 7 per cent. Stating that capital formation and economic growth are interdependent, wherein one feeds into another, he said the only mantra for policymakers in such times is not to be conventional and described India’s prudent response to the Covid crisis as a case in point. However, sustaining high growth performance has been “elusive” for India, which has had short periods of high growth that are typically followed by a long period of balancesheet repair, dud loan cleaning for lenders, etc, he said, reminding that “we need to keep in mind that China grew around double digits for three decades”.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 21995.65, down by 2.05 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 21917.50 and 22027.80. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Enterprises up by 2.82%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.23%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.66%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.43% and BPCL up by 1.10%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 2.26%, JSW Steel down by 1.87%, LTIMindtree down by 1.29%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.11% and TCS down by 1.06% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Straits Times rose 19.6 points or 0.62% to 3,180.32, KOSPI increased 16.81 points or 0.62% to 2,710.38, Jakarta Composite gained 14.43 points or 0.19% to 7,435.64, Nikkei 225 added 1.56 points or 0% to 38,697.53 and Shanghai Composite was up by 0.34 points or 0.01% to 3,044.17. On the other hand, Hang Seng lost 97.67 points or 0.57% to 16,984.44 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 40.12 points or 0.2% to 19,888.39.