Bourses trade at day's low levels in early afternoon session

Mirroring weak global cues, Indian equity benchmarks extended their losses in early afternoon session. Currently, markets traded near day’s low levels amid ongoing concerns about a global trade war. Besides, traders were looking forward to RBI’s interest rate decision, which due on April 09. Investors overlooked the report that RBI is likely to cut key interest rates again by up to 25 basis points this week, as lower inflation provides support for an accommodative monetary policy stance, and there is a pressing need to stimulate growth at a time when the reciprocal tariffs announced by the U.S. is posing a challenge to the global economy. On the global front, all Asian markets are trading lower as Japan's leading index decreased less than expected in February after improving in the previous month. The leading index, which measures future economic activity, dropped to 107.9 in February from 108.2 in January.  

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 72120.20, down by 3244.49 points or 4.31% after trading in a range of 71425.01 and 73149.12. All 30 stocks were declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 4.74%, while Small cap index was down by 6.00%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal down by 7.54%, Basic Materials down by 6.06%, Industrials down by 5.98%, Realty down by 5.47% and Capital Goods was down by 5.45%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE. 

The top losers on the Sensex were Tata Steel down by 9.61%, Tata Motors down by 8.61%, Larsen & Toubro down by 6.74%, HCL Tech down by 6.31% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 5.81%.

Meanwhile, with an aim to make the border villages self-reliant and vibrant, the Union Cabinet has approved the Vibrant Villages Programme -II (VVP-II) as a Central Sector Scheme (100% Centre funding) with a total outlay of Rs 6,839 crore, furthering its commitment for the vision of Viksit Bharat@2047 for ‘Safe, Secured & Vibrant land borders’. 

The Programme would help in the comprehensive development of the villages located in the blocks abutting international land borders (ILBs), other than the Northern border already covered under VVP-I. It shall be implemented in select strategic villages in the States/UTs of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, J&K (UT), Ladakh (UT), Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal till the FY 2028-29.

The objective of the programme is to create better living conditions and adequate livelihood opportunities to ensure prosperous and safe borders, control trans-border crime and assimilate the border population with the nation and inculcate them ‘as eyes and ears of the border guarding forces’, crucial for internal security.

The programme shall provide funds for infrastructure development within the village or a cluster of villages, value chain development (through cooperatives, SHGs, etc), border specific outreach activity, education infrastructure like SMART classes, development of tourism circuits and works/projects to create diverse & sustainable livelihood opportunities in the border areas.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 21863.35, down by 1041.10 points or 4.55% after trading in a range of 21743.65 and 22190.00. All 50 stocks were declining on the index.

The top losers on Nifty were Trent down by 16.94%, Tata Steel down by 9.62%, Shriram Finance down by 9.44%, JSW Steel down by 8.94% and Tata Motors down by 8.57%, while there were no gainers on the Nifty.

All Asian markets are trading lower; Hang Seng declined 2799.79 points or 12.25% to 20,050.02, Nikkei 225 slipped 2644 points or 8.49% to 31,136.58, Taiwan Weighted lost 2065.87 points or 10.74% to 19,232.35, Straits Times fell 293.95 points or 7.68% to 3,531.91, Shanghai Composite weakened 262.76 points or 7.86% to 3,079.25 and KOSPI was down by 137.22 points or 5.89% to 2,328.20.