Bourses trade under pressure in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets traded under pressure in late afternoon session following weak cues from European markets. Besides, broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index traded with deep losses. Investors overlooked Reserve Bank's October Bulletin said India's growth outlook is supported by robust domestic engines and private investment showing some encouraging signs despite geopolitical tensions. The global economy remained resilient in the first half of 2024, with declining inflation supporting household spending. Stable growth momentum amid monetary policy easing is becoming the prevailing theme across most economies.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as Middle East tensions persisted and rising bond yields made investors rethink about rate cut chances. European markets were trading mostly in red amid rising inflation expectations and concerns over U.S. fiscal deficit. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 80610.09, down by 541.18 points or 0.67% after trading in a range of 80531.66 and 81504.24. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 1.95%, while Small cap index was down by 3.20%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 3.29%, Industrials down by 2.97%, PSU down by 2.78%, Capital Goods down by 2.52% and Metal was down by 2.31%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 1.06%, Nestle up by 0.56%, Infosys up by 0.50% and Ultratech Cement up by 0.29%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.89%, Tata Steel down by 2.29%, Tata Motors down by 2.26%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.20% and SBI down by 2.18% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, credit rating agency ICRA in its latest report has said that India’s data centre (DC) operational capacity is likely to more than double to 2,000-2,100 MW by FY2027 from 950 MW in FY2024, involving investment of Rs 50,000-55,000 crore, supported by digital explosion and data localisation initiatives. The DC capacity in India is dominated by a few players like NTT Global Data Centers, STT Global Data Centers, CtrlS Data Centres, Sify Technologies and Nxtra Data, which had a share of 85% in the operational capacity as of March 2024. However, considering the strong demand for data centres in the country, many new developers like Yotta, Digital Connexion, Lumina CloudInfra, CapitaLand, Digital Edge, etc., have entered the industry with massive investments. 

According to the report, co-location services, backed by hyperscalers, contribute to the majority (80-85%) of the DC revenues in the country. Most of the upcoming investments are geared towards meeting the high demand for these services. This continues to be driven by hyperscalers (large cloud service providers) and verticals, such as banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) and information technology/IT-enabled services (IT/ITES), which require strict data confidentiality and complete management control of their operations.

The report said around 95% of the existing capacity is in six cities in India with Mumbai and Chennai leading the race due to their inherent advantage in the form of the dense wet cable ecosystem, which offers best latencies (amount of time it takes for a data to travel from one place to another). Mumbai has been the front runner due to its central location, reliable power and cable landing stations. Mumbai contributes more than 50% to the current capacity and is expected to remain the key location for the upcoming DC capacity in India.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24590.65, down by 190.45 points or 0.77% after trading in a range of 24569.75 and 24882.00. There were 5 stocks advancing against 45 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 1.07%, Nestle up by 0.59%, Infosys up by 0.48%, Ultratech Cement up by 0.29% and Wipro up by 0.07%. On the flip side, Adani Enterprises down by 3.28%, Bharat Electronics down by 3.17%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.98%, Coal India down by 2.81% and Tata Steel down by 2.28% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Nikkei 225 slipped 542.64 points or 1.41% to 38,411.96, KOSPI dropped 34.22 points or 1.33% to 2,570.70, Straits Times fell 18.77 points or 0.52% to 3,595.81 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 7.1 points or 0.03% to 23,535.43. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite strengthened 17.76 points or 0.54% to 3,285.87, Jakarta Composite gained 19.45 points or 0.25% to 7,792.05 and Hang Seng was up by 20.49 points or 0.1% to 20,498.95.

European markets were trading mostly in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 39.42 points or 0.47% to 8,278.82 and France’s CAC was down by 13.85 points or 0.18% to 7,522.38. On the flip side, Germany’s DAX was up by 64.73 points or 0.33% to 19,525.92.