Key bourses continue to reel under pressure in late trade

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in red terrain as traders remain concerned amid rising global trade tensions. US has imposed 25 per cent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico and 10 per cent on Chinese goods. The focus has now shifted to global developments, especially the US actions and counter actions by global major economies, which will be closely watched. On the domestic front, the traders are staying away from risky assets ahead of the upcoming RBI monetary policy. Weakness in Indian Rupee too dampened sentiments. The rupee fell to a record low of Rs 87.07 against the US dollar on Monday, as global currency markets reacted to fresh trade tensions.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 77158.64, down by 347.32 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 76756.09 and 77260.37. There were 10 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 1.21%, while Small cap index was down by 1.91%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.66%, TECK up by 0.41%, IT up by 0.23%, while Capital Goods down by 4.53%, Industrials down by 4.05%, Power down by 3.78%, PSU down by 3.19% and Utilities down by 3.17% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 4.80%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.19%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.77%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.70% and Bajaj Finserv up by 1.48%. On the flip side, Larsen & Toubro down by 4.66%, NTPC down by 2.90%, Asian Paints down by 2.85%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.83% and Tata Motors down by 2.53% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the government will set up an Export Promotion Mission with an outlay of Rs 2,250 crore to promote the country's outbound shipments. Three ministries - commerce, MSME, and finance - will work on rolling out of this mission. Through the mission, the government will facilitate exporters to get easy access to credit, cross-border factoring support, and support to MSMEs to tackle non-tariff measures in overseas markets.  

The minister said a digital public infrastructure, 'BharatTradeNet' (BTN) for international trade will be set up as a unified platform for trade documentation and financing solutions. This will complement the Unified Logistics Interface Platform. The BTN will be aligned with international practices. It will be new Digital Public Infrastructure to be a part of the India Stack, which currently include products such as UPI, Aadhaar, ONDC, and DigiLocker. 

According to the ministry, it will be designed to digitise, streamline, and modernise India's international trade ecosystem. It aims to eliminate paper-based processes, improve trade finance access, and enhance regulatory compliance by integrating key stakeholders such as Customs, DGFT, GSTN, banks, and exporters into a unified digital platform. To boost MSME exports, the Budget also announced revision of MSME classification criteria. She said exporter MSMEs can avail of increased credit benefits from Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore, generating additional credit of Rs 1.5 lakh crore in the next five years.  

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23351.85, down by 130.30 points or 0.55% after trading in a range of 23222.00 and 23369.10. There were 15 stocks advancing against 36 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finance up by 4.87%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.39%, Wipro up by 2.59%, Shriram Finance up by 2.35% and Eicher Motors up by 2.10%. On the flip side, Larsen & Toubro down by 4.63%, ONGC down by 4.15%, Hero MotoCorp down by 3.50%, Bharat Electronics down by 3.35% and Coal India down by 3.27% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 1052.4 points or 2.73% to 38,520.09, Taiwan Weighted lost 830.7 points or 3.66% to 22,694.71, Jakarta Composite weakened 79.14 points or 1.11% to 7,030.06, Hang Seng declined 7.85 points or 0.04% to 20,217.26, KOSPI fell 63.42 points or 2.58% to 2,453.95 and Straits Times was down by 27.07 points or 0.7% to 3,828.75.

European markets are trading lower; Germany’s DAX lost 331.87 points or 1.53% to 21,400.18, France’s CAC fell 119.51 points or 1.5% to 7,830.66 and UK’s FTSE 100 was down by 108.11 points or 1.25% to 8,565.85.