Benchmarks extend losses in late morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks extended losses in late morning deals, as early vote counting trends suggested Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance is unlikely to win a decisive majority as predicted by the exit polls over the weekend. Sentiments remained down-beat as S&P Global Market Intelligence asserts that weak private consumption in India remains the largest concern, with rural demand in particular still straggling to catch up, at a time when the country's overall growth remains strong. For the second consecutive quarter, India's real GDP growth exceeded most forecasts, bringing the full financial year 2023-24 growth to 8.2 per cent. With this, India maintains its status of the world's fastest-growing large economy. On the sectoral front, port and shipping industry stocks remained in focus with report that cargo traffic across 12 major ports in the country increased by 3.75 per cent year-on-year in May to 72.04 million tones (MT) from 69.43 MT handled in the corresponding month of 2023 with nine such ports showing positive growth. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red as global investors consider the prospect the US economy ‘exceptionalism' is starting to unwind as manufacturing activity in the world's largest economy further weakened. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 73489.79, down by 2978.99 points or 3.90% after trading in a range of 73300.03 and 76300.46. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index. 

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 4.84%, while Small cap index was down by 4.28%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities down by 9.44%, PSU down by 9.42%, Power down by 9.20%, Oil & Gas down by 7.53% and Telecom down by 7.41%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 2.47%, Sun Pharma up by 0.33%, Nestle up by 0.20% and Titan Company up by 0.08%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 9.29%, SBI down by 8.97%, Power Grid Corporation down by 8.14%, Indusind Bank down by 7.51% and Larsen & Toubro down by 7.35% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, credit rating agency ICRA in its latest report has revised its outlook growth target for domestic steel demand to 9-10 per cent for the current fiscal (FY25) as compared to the earlier estimate of 7-8 per cent, on healthy government spending and demand from steel-consuming sectors. It said the domestic steel consumption registered a growth of 11.3 per cent between February to April 2024.

According to the report, government capex spending was also healthy until February 2024, and other steel-consuming sectors like housing and real estate contributed to the resilient demand thereafter. It said for the last three years, the steel industry has witnessed its fastest period of growth since the global financial crisis.

The report further said that India's finished steel imports increased 38.2 per cent in FY2024 and the country remained a net importer of the commodity. India turned into a net steel importer last fiscal after a gap of five years. Given the weak global growth outlook over the next few quarters, it expects domestic steel imports to rise further by 13-14 per cent in FY2025, leading to the country being a net steel importer in the current fiscal as well.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22263.95, down by 999.95 points or 4.30% after trading in a range of 22238.10 and 23179.50. There were 6 stocks advancing against 44 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindustan Unilever up by 2.41%, Britannia Industries up by 1.17%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.84%, Divi's Lab up by 0.63% and Sun Pharma up by 0.17%. On the flip side, Adani Ports &SEZ down by 13.58%, Adani Enterprises down by 12.55%, NTPC down by 9.79%, ONGC down by 9.73% and Coal India down by 9.58% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Shanghai Composite weakened 0.6 points or 0.02% to 3,077.89, Straits Times fell 4.84 points or 0.14% to 3,344.03, KOSPI dropped 13.35 points or 0.5% to 2,669.17 and Nikkei 225 slipped 87.22 points or 0.22% to 38,835.81 and Taiwan Weighted lost 155.66 points or 0.72% to 21,381.10.

On the flip side, Hang Seng advanced 38.55 points or 0.21% to 18,441.59 and Jakarta Composite gained 98.08 points or 1.39% to 7,134.27.