Benchmarks remain in red in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks remained in red in morning deals, amid weak trends in Asian markets. Traders remained cautious with a private report stating that India will struggle to create enough jobs for its growing workforce over the next decade even if the economy grows at a rapid pace of 7 per cent, and it suggested the world’s most-populous nation will need more concerted steps to boost employment and skills. It estimates India will need to create about 12 million jobs a year over the next decade to absorb the number of new entrants to the labor market. However, losses remain capped as traders took some support with exchange data showing that Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 1,241.33 crore on Friday. Sectorally, Coal sector stocks remained in focus with a private report that India's coal import rose 5.3 per cent to 52.29 million tonnes (MT) in the first two months of the ongoing fiscal as against the year-ago period. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red as investors looked ahead to the release of the U.S. inflation print for June as well as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's testimony this week for additional clues on the Fed's rate trajectory.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 79875.03, down by 121.57 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 79767.97 and 80022.38. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.11%, while Small cap index was up by 0.18%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.39%, PSU up by 0.54%, Capital Goods up by 0.37%, IT up by 0.07% and Industrials up by 0.07%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.37%, Realty down by 0.47%, Power down by 0.34%, Metal down by 0.24% and Consumer Discretionary down by 0.23% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 1.64%, Nestle up by 1.13%, ITC up by 1.08%, Tata Motors up by 0.81% and Infosys up by 0.66%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 3.68%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 1.56%, Asian Paints down by 1.06%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.90% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.77% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Secretary, S Krishnan has said India has the talent and deep expertise to become a global player in the semiconductor industry which is a vital sector for the country.  

He stated ‘The semiconductor industry is vital for the country and India has the talent, deep expertise and scalability to be a global player. The Government is helping the industry to create the ecosystem to build semiconductors.’

India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) estimates the sector to touch $100 billion by 2030. India is rapidly becoming one of the biggest markets for electronics, automotive, Electric Vehicles and a significant hub for technical expertise.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24292.65, down by 31.20 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 24262.55 and 24338.85. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Consumer Product up by 2.00%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.64%, Nestle up by 1.16%, HDFC Life Insurance up by 1.09% and ITC up by 1.07%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 3.68%, Divi's Lab down by 2.47%, Shriram Finance down by 1.61%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 1.58% and Adani Enterprises down by 1.25% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 281.4 points or 1.58% to 17,518.21, Jakarta Composite plunged 5.37 points or 0.07% to 7,248.00, Shanghai Composite weakened 21.28 points or 0.72% to 2,928.65, Straits Times fell 7.97 points or 0.23% to 3,402.84, KOSPI dropped 2.61 points or 0.09% to 2,859.62 and Nikkei 225 slipped 32.14 points or 0.08% to 40,880.23.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted added 388.12 points or 1.65% to 23,944.71.