Bourses continue lackluster trade in early afternoon session

Local equity benchmarks continued their lackluster trade in early afternoon session following negative cues from other Asian markets. Globally traders were cautious after the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting revealed officials want to see further progress on inflation before they consider resuming lowering interest rates. Domestic invertors overlooked report that S&P Global Ratings has said the impact of the US reciprocal tariff will be limited on India as the economy is domestically oriented with less reliance on exports. On the global front, all Asian markets are trading lower as People's Bank of China maintained its interest rates unchanged for the fourth straight time. The PBoC left its one-year loan prime rate unchanged at 3.10 percent. Likewise, the five-year LPR, the benchmark for mortgage rates, was retained at 3.60 percent. The decision matched expectations.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 75711.60, down by 227.58 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 75463.01 and 75794.15. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.73%, while Small cap index was up by 1.00%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 2.18%, Power up by 1.88%, Metal up by 1.61%, PSU up by 1.42% and Oil & Gas was up by 1.30%, while Bankex down by 0.70%, Consumer Durables down by 0.28%, FMCG down by 0.20%, Telecom down by 0.18% and TECK was down by 0.07% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 3.34%, Adani Ports up by 2.77%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.44%, Tata Motors up by 1.56% and Tata Steel up by 1.29%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 2.25%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.78%, ITC down by 1.16%, ICICI Bank down by 1.12% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.05% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) Director General Raja Bhanu has said that any decision by the US to impose reciprocal tariffs on Indian pharmaceutical exports would mainly impact American consumers, although the domestic industry remains cautiously optimistic. He said that India exports goods worth over $8 billion every year to America. 

Citing US studies, he said overall, medicines from Indian companies provided $219 billion in savings to the US healthcare system in 2022 and a total of $1.3 trillion between 2013 and 2022, and generics from Indian companies are expected to generate an additional $1.3 trillion in savings over the next five years. He also informed that Indian pharmaceutical companies supply a substantial proportion of drugs to the US, with four out of ten of all prescriptions filled in the US in 2022 being supplied by domestic firms. At present, there is no import duty on Indian pharmaceuticals in the US. 

Talking about overall pharma exports of India, Bhanu said the target for this fiscal is $29 billion. During April-January this fiscal, the exports rose by 7.84 per cent to $24.3 billion as against $22.53 billion in April-January 2023-24. In entire 2023-24, it was $27.84 billion. Issues like conflicts in certain countries, high freight rates, disturbances in supply chain, and exchange rate fluctuations are some of the challenges the sector is facing. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22895.00, down by 37.90 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 22812.75 and 22914.10. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 3.32%, Shriram Finance up by 2.86%, Adani Ports up by 2.61%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.45% and Hindalco up by 2.06%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 2.34%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.85%, Tata Consumer down by 1.78%, ITC down by 1.17% and ICICI Bank down by 1.10% were the top losers.

All Asian markets are trading lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 486.57 points or 1.26% to 38,678.04, Hang Seng declined 284.99 points or 1.24% to 22,659.25, Taiwan Weighted lost 116.62 points or 0.5% to 23,487.46, KOSPI dropped 17.46 points or 0.66% to 2,654.06, Straits Times fell 6.34 points or 0.16% to 3,927.70, Jakarta Composite plunged 6.2 points or 0.09% to 6,788.67 and Shanghai Composite was down by 1.74 points or 0.05% to 3,349.80.