Domestic indices continue to trade in red in late morning deals

Domestic equity indices continued to trade in red in late morning deals tracing weak cues from other Asian markets. Selling in Titan, Adani Ports, Asian Paints, Ultratech Cement and JSW Steel companies’ stocks dragged the markets to trade lower. Traders were cautious after French elections pointed to a hung parliament and 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. Besides, traders were concerned as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said India's forex reserves dropped $1.713 billion to $651.997 billion for the week ended June 28. On the BSE sectoral front, traders were seen pilling up positions in FMCG, PSU, Oil & Gas, Capital Goods and Energy, while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables, Metal, Basic Materials, Power and Realty. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red as investors awaited key economic data from the U.S. and China later this week. Back home, in the stock specific development, shares of railway related companies surged on the back of private reports that the government may focus on higher allocation for this sector in the upcoming budget on July 23. Rail Vikas Nigam, Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC), IRCON International, RailTel Corporation of India and Texmaco Rail & Engineering rallied.  

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 79846.04, down by 150.56 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 79739.71 and 80022.38. There were 10 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.02%, while Small cap index down by 0.11%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.01%, PSU up by 0.60%, Oil & Gas up by 0.32%, Capital Goods up by 0.29% and Energy up by 0.27%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.69%, Metal down by 0.55%, Basic Materials down by 0.46%, Power down by 0.41% and Realty down by 0.40% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 0.90%, Nestle up by 0.86%, ITC up by 0.77%, Tata Motors up by 0.67% and Infosys up by 0.56%. On the flip side, Titan down by 3.95%, Adani Ports down by 1.64%, Asian Paints down by 1.09%, JSW Steel down by 1.08% and Ultratech Cement down by 1.08% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) in its latest data has showed that India’s automobile retail experienced a modest a year-on-year (YoY) growth of just 0.73% in June 2024 owing to the delayed monsoon in certain parts of the country.

According to the data, while the two-wheeler (2W) and three-wheeler (3W) segments registered positive YoY growths of 4.66% and 5.1% respectively, other categories such as passenger vehicles (PV), tractors (Trac) and commercial vehicles (CV) saw declines of 6.7%, 28.3%, and 4.7% YoY, respectively.  The two-wheeler (2W) category faced significant challenges, with a month-on-month (MoM) sales decline of 10.36%, despite a 4.66% YoY increase. Moreover, passenger vehicles (PV) and commercial vehicles (CV) sales fell by 7.18% and 12.42% MoM, reflecting poor market sentiment.

FADA has stated that June presented various challenges, including delayed monsoons, poor market sentiment and postponed purchases due to low demand and funding delays. The industry continues to face degrowth, impacted by high temperatures affecting the agricultural sector and infrastructural project slowdowns. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24282.05, down by 41.80 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 24247.80 and 24338.85. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Consumer up by 1.64%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.96%, Wipro up by 0.93%, Nestle up by 0.89% and ONGC up by 0.83%. On the flip side, Titan down by 3.93%, Divi's Lab down by 2.84%, Adani Enterprises down by 1.78%, Adani Ports down by 1.56% and Shriram Finance down by 1.53% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 268.38 points or 1.51% to 17,531.23, Jakarta Composite plunged 5.37 points or 0.07% to 7,248.00, Shanghai Composite weakened 14.8 points or 0.5% to 2,935.13, Straits Times fell 9.71 points or 0.28% to 3,401.10, KOSPI dropped 0.84 points or 0.03% to 2,861.39 and Nikkei 225 slipped 54.49 points or 0.13% to 40,857.88. However, Taiwan Weighted added 346.27 points or 1.47% to 23,902.86.