Benchmarks remain in red in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks remained in red in morning deals, tracking subdued global market cues and ahead of the beginning of the Q4 earnings season with TCS slated to post March quarter earnings later today. Traders also remained on sidelines ahead of the India’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data to be out later in the day. Traders overlooked Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Report stated that the government's continued emphasis on infrastructure creation, coupled with an uptick in private corporate investment and buoyant business optimism, could nurture a sustained revival in the investment cycle, which augurs well for boosting productivity and growth in the economy.  On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red amid signs of escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and uncertainty over the pace of U.S. interest-rate cuts this year.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 74604.67, down by 433.48 points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 74539.09 and 74951.88. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.23%, while Small cap index was up by 0.02%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 0.62%, Industrials up by 0.37%, Power up by 0.25%, Energy up by 0.14% and Auto up by 0.08%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.82%, FMCG down by 0.74%, Bankex down by 0.68%, Telecom down by 0.34% and Basic Materials down by 0.31% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 0.96%, Nestle up by 0.88%, TCS up by 0.64%, NTPC up by 0.61% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.08%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma Inds. down by 2.76%, JSW Steel down by 1.82%, Titan Co down by 1.76%, Asian Paints down by 1.56% and HDFC Bank down by 1.36% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) member Sanjeev Sanyal has said that India's economic growth performance is 'good' and efforts now will be needed to sustain it, as there are concerns about the external environment, which are not quite settled.  Sanyal noted that if the weather condition and the monsoon turns out to be favorable, then food prices will hopefully get tempered as well. This will lay out conditions that will be quite conductive for a growth momentum of 7 per cent or so, to be carried through even under somewhat uncertain global situations.

He stated ‘Our current economic growth performance, I would argue, (is) rather good. And the game now from here on is to be able to sustain it.’ India's economy grew by better-than-expected 8.4 per cent in the final three months of 2023 -- the fastest pace in one-and-half years. The growth rate in October-December was higher than 7.6 per cent in the previous three years, and it helped take the estimate for the previous fiscal (April 2023 to March 2024) to 7.6 per cent. Recently, the Reserve Bank retained the GDP growth forecast of 7 per cent for 2024-25 financial year.

He said ‘While we are very confident of our domestic growth momentum in our economy, there are certainly concerns about the external environments, which are not quite settled.’ Sanyal explained that exports continue to be quite weak, and there is not yet any momentum in global exports. Moreover, he said ‘very recently, there was spike in oil prices... going up to $91 per barrel because of tensions in the Middle East, destruction of Russian oil facilities by Ukrainian attacks and a variety of other reasons.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22631.15, down by 122.65 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 22624.85 and 22726.45. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Divi's Lab up by 1.66%, Coal India up by 1.42%, Tata Motors up by 0.92%, Nestle up by 0.83% and NTPC up by 0.79%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 2.73%, Titan Company down by 1.98%, JSW Steel down by 1.77%, Asian Paints down by 1.72% and Shriram Finance down by 1.57% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Shanghai Composite weakened 1.17 points or 0.04% to 3,033.08, Hang Seng declined 295.36 points or 1.76% to 16,799.67, Straits Times fell 9.23 points or 0.29% to 3,218.38 and KOSPI dropped 23.60 points or 0.87% to 2,683.36.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 surged 101.9 points or 0.26% to 39,544.53 and Taiwan Weighted added 53.06 points or 0.26% to 20,806.28.