Bears take control over Dalal Street in late trade

Domestic equity indices extended losses in late afternoon session, weighed down by uncertainties surrounding U.S. tariffs and foreign funds outflow. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 2,463.72 crore on February 10. Moreover, despite the rupee rebound, the broader trend remained weak that worries the traders as the rupee weakens, FII’s selling intensifies due to diminishing real returns. The rising gold prices may indicate investors moving towards safer assets amidst fear of escalating trade war. On global front, Asian stock markets were trading mix amidst China’s retaliatory tariffs on US goods and increased scrutiny on US tech giants like Nvidia, Apple, and Google, using antitrust investigations and regulatory delays. The traders remain cautious amid raising fears of a brewing global trade war and its potential impact on the global economy. However, European markets were trading in green ahead of semi-annual monetary policy testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 76169.99, down by 1141.81 points or 1.48% after trading in a range of 76030.59 and 77387.28. There was 1 stock advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index tumbled by 3.35%, while Small cap index was down by 3.86%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 3.88%, Industrials down by 3.38%, Healthcare down by 3.06%, Capital Goods down by 3.05% and Consumer Disc down by 3.04%, while there were no gainers on BSE sectoral indices.

The lone gainer on the Sensex was Bharti Airtel up by 0.08%. On the flip side, Zomato down by 5.70%, Tata Motors down by 2.84%, Bajaj Finserv down by 2.77%, Tata Steel down by 2.72% and Hindustan Unilever down by 2.65% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the agriculture ministry has revised guidelines for Market Intervention Scheme (MIS), increasing the procurement limit of crops to 25 per cent from 20 per cent. The guidelines have been revised to encourage states to implement the MIS. MIS is a component of PM-AASHA scheme. 

The MIS is implemented on the request of state/UT government for procurement of various perishable agricultural/horticultural commodities such as tomato, onion and potato, etc, for which minimum support price (MSP) is not applicable and there is a reduction of at least 10 per cent in market prices in states/UTs as compared to the rates of the previous normal season.

The scheme is to ensure farmers are not forced to sell their produce under distress. To encourage more states for implementation of MIS, the government has revised the MIS guidelines. In the revised norms, the government has made MIS a component of the integrated scheme of PM-AASHA. MIS will be implemented only when there is a minimum reduction of 10 per cent in the prevailing market price as compared to the previous normal year.

The procurement/ coverage limit of production quantity of crops has been increased from the existing 20 per cent to 25 per cent. The state has also been given the option to pay the difference between the market intervention price (MIP) and the selling price directly into the bank account of the farmers in place of physical procurement. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23018.30, down by 363.30 points or 1.55% after trading in a range of 22986.65 and 23390.05. There were 3 stocks advancing against 47 stocks declining on the index.

The few gainers on Nifty were Adani Enterprises up by 0.97%, Grasim Industries up by 0.34% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.11%. On the flip side, Eicher Motors down by 6.66%, Apollo Hospital down by 6.44%, Shriram Finance down by 4.40%, Bharat Electronics down by 3.55% and HDFC Life Insurance down by 3.25% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mix; Hang Seng declined 227.12 points or 1.07% to 21,294.86, Jakarta Composite plunged 116.15 points or 1.75% to 6,531.99, Nikkei 225 slipped 0 points or 0% to 38,801.17, Straits Times fell 13.11 points or 0.34% to 3,862.02 and Shanghai Composite weakened 4.11 points or 0.12% to 3,318.06, 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.

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 3.12 points or 0.04% to 8,770.92, France’s CAC rose 8.6 points or 0.11% to 8,014.82 and Germany’s DAX gained 51.51 points or 0.24% to 21,963.25.