Weak trade continues on Dalal Street

Indian equity benchmarks continued their weak trade in late morning deals, amid uncertainty over Lok Sabha election results and gross domestic product (GDP) data for Q4FY24. Market participants also remained on sidelines ahead of monthly F&O expiry for May series later in the day. Some pessimism also came with exchange data showed foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 5,841.84 crore on Wednesday. Traders overlooked Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that S&P Global Ratings' revision of its outlook on India from 'stable' to 'positive' is a welcome development. She said this reflects India's solid growth performance and a promising economic outlook for the coming years. The minister noted that it has been possible due to the series of macroeconomic reforms undertaken since 2014, along with substantial outlay for capex, fiscal discipline, and decisive and visionary leadership. On the global front, Asian markets are trading lower as investors looked to key inflation readings at the end of the week for further clues on the future path of monetary policy.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 74142.79, down by 360.11 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 74030.53 and 74493.55. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.44%, while Small cap index was down by 0.45%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 0.48%, Capital Goods up by 0.28% and Oil & Gas up by 0.10%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.30%, Metal down by 1.17%, IT down by 0.96%, Basic Materials down by 0.93% and TECK down by 0.86% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.81%, ICICI Bank up by 0.62%, Indusind Bank up by 0.57%, Axis Bank up by 0.54% and SBI up by 0.53%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 3.27%, Nestle down by 2.35%, Titan Company down by 2.13%, JSW Steel down by 2.06% and Power Grid Corporation down by 1.92% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that S&P Global Ratings' revision of its outlook on India from 'stable' to 'positive' is a welcome development. She said this reflects India's solid growth performance and a promising economic outlook for the coming years.

The minister noted that it has been possible due to the series of macroeconomic reforms undertaken since 2014, along with substantial outlay for capex, fiscal discipline, and decisive and visionary leadership. She added that India is well on track to become the third-largest economy in the third term of the government and become a Viksit Bharat by 2047. 

S&P Global Ratings upgraded India's outlook to positive, from stable. This is the first time that S&P has assigned a positive outlook on India's rating. S&P retained India's rating at lowest investment grade of 'BBB-'.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22594.45, down by 110.25 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 22554.00 and 22705.75. There were 11 stocks advancing against 39 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.85%, ICICI Bank up by 0.61%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.58%, SBI up by 0.55% and Axis Bank up by 0.50%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 3.30%, Nestle down by 2.71%, Shriram Finance down by 2.32%, Titan Company down by 2.31% and JSW Steel down by 2.01% were the top losers.

All Asian markets are trading lower; Hang Seng declined 277.31 points or 1.47% to 18,543.85, Jakarta Composite plunged 123.42 points or 1.73% to 7,130.21, Shanghai Composite strengthened 9.56 points or 0.31% to 3,119.13, Straits Times fell 4.4 points or 0.13% to 3,325.69, KOSPI dropped 38.14 points or 1.4% to 2,684.71, Nikkei 225 slipped 230.05 points or 0.59% to 38,625.32 and Taiwan Weighted lost 127.59 points or 0.58% to 21,730.82