Lacklustre trade persists over Dalal street

The key Indian equity gauges continued to trade in red amid fears of looming global trade conflict after China announced up to 15% retaliatory tariffs on US imports that will come in effect from March 10 and threaten to put 10 American companies on an unreliable list, mainly involved in defence and construction work. Meanwhile, rising concerns of potential high inflationary pressure and economic slowdown in US led by Trumps tariffs, weighted on the market sentiments. However, losses remained capped on the back of recent positive economic cues from Indian economy. The broader markets were trading in positive with small caps leading the charge. 

On the global front, Asian equity markets were trading lower. European equity markets were trading lower after U.S. President Donald Trump paused all military aid for Ukraine to ensure that it will contribute to a solution.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 72964.19, down by 121.75 points or 0.17% after trading in a range of 72633.54 and 73029.84. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index up by 0.17%, while Small cap index was up by 1.36%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 1.70%, Capital Goods up by 1.40%, Industrials up by 1.36%, Oil & Gas up by 1.10% and  Energy up by 0.76%, while Auto down by 1.14%, TECK down by 0.82%, IT down by 0.66%, FMCG down by 0.55% and Telecom down by 0.40% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 3.16%, Zomato up by 2.00%, TCS up by 0.91%, Tata Steel up by 0.72% and Power Grid Corporation up by 0.59%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finserv down by 2.61%, HCL Technologies down by 2.21%, Nestle down by 2.10%, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries down by 1.50% and Titan Company down by 1.38% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, underlining the pivotal role of the MSME sector in India's economic development, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Swaminathan J has emphasized the importance of fair lending practices, ensuring transparency and an empathetic approach towards MSMEs facing financial distress. He also reiterated the crucial role of MSME associations in capacity building and bridging information gaps, to help MSMEs better access credit.

During the 29th meeting of the Standing Advisory Committee (SAC) to review the flow of credit to MSMEs, Deputy Governor reaffirmed the Reserve Bank's commitment to strengthening institutional credit support through initiatives like the Unified Lending Interface (ULI), the Account Aggregator framework, and the Regulatory Sandbox. Further acknowledging key challenges such as financial literacy gaps, information asymmetry, and delayed payments, he stressed the need for digital solutions, alternative credit assessment models, and greater participation in platforms like Trade Receivables electronic Discounting System (TReDS).

The meeting was held by Reserve Bank of India and in that the SAC reviewed the flow of credit to MSMEs and deliberated on ways to address the issues related to credit gap in the sector, cash flow based lending and digital solutions for improved credit linkage, accelerating adoption of TReDS, enhancing the usage of credit guarantee schemes and proactive revival and rehabilitation of MSMEs in financial distress, among others.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22084.85, down by 34.45 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 21964.60 and 22105.05. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharat Electronics up by 3.26%, SBI up by 3.11%, BPCL up by 3.02%, Shriram Finance up by 1.84% and Coal India up by 1.33%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 4.74%, Hero MotoCorp down by 3.52%, Bajaj Finserv down by 2.49%, HCL Technologies down by 2.21% and Nestle down by 2.13% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 64.5 points or 0.28% to 22,941.77, Jakarta Composite plunged 130.2 points or 2.04% to 6,389.46, KOSPI dropped 3.86 points or 0.15% to 2,528.92, Nikkei 225 slipped 454.29 points or 1.22% to 37,331.18, Taiwan Weighted lost 159.37 points or 0.71% to 22,596.88 and Straits Times fell 14.38 points or 0.37% to 3,894.54, while Shanghai Composite strengthened 7.28 points or 0.22% to 3,324.21.

European markets were trading lower; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 59.84 points or 0.67% to 8,811.47, France’s CAC fell 100.95 points or 1.23% to 8,098.76 and Germany’s DAX lost 390.66 points or 1.69% to 22,756.36.