Bears hold tight grip over Dalal Street

Bears were holding their tight grip over the Dalal Street in early afternoon session, with both Sensex and Nifty now trading near their intraday low points, amid heavy selling at almost all the sectors along with negative cues from other Asian markets. Traders got cautious, as U.S. President Donald Trump's top economic adviser Kevin Hassett said that India has high tariffs that lock out imports, adding that India's prime minister had a lot to discuss with Trump when the two leaders meet soon. Traders overlooked reports that with an aim to ease the persistent liquidity deficit in the banking system, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has doubled the amount of government securities it will purchase in the next round of open market operation (OMO) scheduled for February 13 to Rs 40,000 crore, from the Rs 20,000 crore announced earlier.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, as traders kept a nervous eye on Donald Trump's next moves after he signed off on tariffs for steel and aluminium imports and warned of more measures to come. The president has lived up to his campaign pledges to resume his hardball trade diplomacy to extract concessions on a range of issues, including commerce, immigration and drug trafficking.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 76908.73, down by 403.07 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 76885.22 and 77387.28. There were 5 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell by 2.57%, while Small cap index was down by 3.08%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 3.61%, Healthcare down by 2.43%, Industrials down by 2.38%, Consumer discretionary down by 2.07% and Capital Goods down by 1.98%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 0.61%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.48%, Titan up by 0.26%, HCL Tech. up by 0.07% and Axis Bank up by 0.07%. On the flip side, Zomato down by 4.51%, Power Grid down by 2.03%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.75%, Tata Motors down by 1.64% and Ultratech Cement down by 1.23% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to ease the persistent liquidity deficit in the banking system, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has doubled the amount of government securities it will purchase in the next round of open market operation (OMO) scheduled for February 13 to Rs 40,000 crore, from the Rs 20,000 crore announced earlier. 

The RBI in its latest notification noted that on a review of current and evolving liquidity conditions, the aggregate amount of OMO purchase has now been revised to Rs 40,000 crore. Eligible participants must submit their bids in electronic format on the Reserve Bank of India Core Banking Solution (E-Kuber) system between 10:30 am and 11:30 am on February 13, 2025.

Only in the event of system failure, physical bids will be accepted. Such physical bid should be submitted to Financial Markets Operation Department. The result of the auctions will be announced on the same day and successful participants should ensure availability of securities in their SGL account by 12 noon on February 14, 2025.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23242.95, down by 138.65 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 23237.70 and 23390.05. There were 11 stocks advancing against 39 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Enterprises up by 3.00%, Grasim Industries up by 1.12%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.57%, Trent up by 0.56% and Infosys up by 0.51%. On the flip side, Eicher Motors down by 6.10%, Apollo Hospital down by 5.95%, Shriram Finance down by 3.96%, Bharat Electronics down by 2.56% and HDFC Life Insurance down by 2.31% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 135.15 points or 0.63% to 21,386.83, Jakarta Composite plunged 79.5 points or 1.21% to 6,568.64, Shanghai Composite weakened 7.31 points or 0.22% to 3,314.86 and Straits Times fell 16.9 points or 0.44% to 3,858.23, while KOSPI increased 17.78 points or 0.7% to 2,539.05 and Taiwan Weighted added 131.91 points or 0.56% to 23,384.05.