Key gauges continue to trade lower in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks trimmed some losses but continued to trade lower in morning deals, amid weak trends in the US markets and heavy selling in blue-chip stocks. Traders also remained cautious ahead of key macroeconomic data, i.e., inflation data and industrial production data, which are due on March 12. Some concern also came as exchange data showed Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 485.41 crore on a net basis on Monday. However, losses remain capped as traders took some support with report that the government has sought Parliament nod to spend a net additional Rs 51,462.86 crore in the current financial year ending March (FY25), with a large chunk going towards pension and subsidy fertiliser.  On the global front, Asian markets are trading lower on concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump's flip-flop tariff policy and its impact on inflation, interest rates and global growth.  

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 73885.21, down by 229.96 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 73663.60 and 73943.18. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.18%, while Small cap index was down by 1.35%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.48%, Oil & Gas up by 0.37%, Telecom up by 0.27%, Healthcare up by 0.15% and Energy up by 0.10%, while IT down by 1.55%, TECK down by 0.99%, Industrials down by 0.61%, Basic Materials down by 0.57% and Consumer Discretionary down by 0.53% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 2.41%, ICICI Bank up by 1.63%, Nestle up by 0.89%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.87% and Titan Company up by 0.77%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 20.58%, Zomato down by 3.46%, Infosys down by 3.36%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.78% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.70% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government has sought Parliament nod to spend a net additional Rs 51,462.86 crore in the current financial year ending March (FY25), with a large chunk going towards pension and subsidy fertiliser. The gross additional spending sought by the government is over Rs 6.78 lakh crore, of which Rs 6.27 lakh crore would be matched by savings and receipts. As per second batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants proposed by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha, the net additional spending by the government would be Rs 51,462.86 crore in the current fiscal.

The additional expenditure includes Rs 14,100 crore to the department of fertilisers, including subsidies for urea and P&K fertiliser. An additional allocation of Rs 13,449 crore has been provided for the pension of government employees, including Rs 7,000 crore towards the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS).

The total spending also includes a defence pension of Rs 8,476 crore and Rs 5,322 crore to the Department of Telecommunications. Additional Rs 2,186 crore funds have been allocated to the agriculture department and Rs 3,722 crore to the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir for meeting additional expenditure to meet the resource gap.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22419.00, down by 41.30 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 22314.70 and 22432.25. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 2.47%, ICICI Bank up by 1.59%, Bharat Electronics up by 1.24%, Trent up by 1.04% and Adani Enterprises up by 0.99%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 20.33%, Infosys down by 3.17%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.92%, Wipro down by 1.85% and Bajaj Finserv down by 1.76% were the top losers. 

All Asian markets are trading lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 474.86 points or 1.28% to 36,553.41, Taiwan Weighted lost 330.63 points or 1.47% to 22,128.52, Hang Seng declined 221.4 points or 0.94% to 23,562.09, KOSPI dropped 27.82 points or 1.08% to 2,542.57, Straits Times fell 70.75 points or 1.81% to 3,828.32, Jakarta Composite plunged 59.93 points or 0.91% to 6,538.28 and Shanghai Composite weakened 15.9 points or 0.47% to 3,350.26.