Key gauges continue to trade lower in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower in morning deals, due to losses in Telecom, Industrials and Auto stocks. Traders remained cautious as the provisional data from the National Stock Exchange showed foreign portfolio investors turned net sellers on Monday, offloading equities worth Rs 526 crore. However, losses remain capped as some support came with S&P Global study stating that India has made progress in making its manufacturing sector more attractive to global investors, and ongoing changes in international trade policy would benefit India in the long run. Separately, the commerce ministry's investigation arm Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has recommended an anti-dumping duty of $733 per tonne on imports of a fungicide - Thiram - from the European Union (EU) to protect the domestic industry from cheap inbound shipments. On the global front, Asian markets are trading higher, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight as China cut its benchmark lending rates for the first time in 7 months to boost its struggling economy amid rising trade tensions.  

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 81868.40, down by 191.02 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 81804.36 and 82250.42. 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 0.30%, while Small cap index was down by 0.03%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.16%, Realty up by 1.02%, IT up by 0.93%, Energy up by 0.57% and TECK up by 0.49%, while Telecom down by 0.64%, Industrials down by 0.56%, Auto down by 0.55%, Capital Goods down by 0.51%, Bankex down by 0.50% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 1.52%, Tata Steel up by 1.52%, Infosys up by 1.21%, Tata Motors up by 0.97% and ITC up by 0.86%. On the flip side, Eternal down by 2.12%, HDFC Bank down by 0.99%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.86%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.77% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.69% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, ICRA in its note has said that it projected India's GDP growth at 6.9 per cent in the quarter ended March 31, 2025 (Q4) and at 6.3 per cent for the full 2024-25 fiscal, undershooting the National Statistics Office (NSO) estimates made in February. In February, the NSO had projected the Indian economy to grow at 6.5 per cent in 2024-25. With economic growth in June, September and December quarter at 6.5 per cent, 5.6 per cent and 6.2 per cent respectively.

To achieve the NSO's projected 6.5 per cent growth in FY25, the GDP growth in Q4 or March quarter should be 7.6 per cent. The NSO is scheduled to release the provisional estimates of FY'25 GDP and quarterly estimates for Q4 on May 30. Further, unless there are material revisions in the data for Q1-Q3 FY2025, ICRA projects a sharp step-down in the full-year GDP expansion to 6.3 per cent in FY2024-25, from 9.2 per cent in FY 2023-24.

ICRA's Aditi Nayar said both private consumption and trends for investment activity were uneven in Q4 FY2025, with the latter partly owing to tariff-related uncertainty. Services sector exports continued to show double-digit growth, while merchandise exports contracted in YoY terms in Q4 FY2025 after expanding in December quarter.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24895.30, down by 50.15 points or 0.20% after trading in a range of 24863.40 and 25010.35. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 3.27%, ONGC up by 2.02%, Indusind Bank up by 1.60%, Tata Steel up by 1.45% and Infosys up by 1.17%. On the flip side, Eternal down by 2.08%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.70%, Cipla down by 1.45%, JIO Financial Services down by 1.21% and Eicher Motors down by 1.13% were the top losers.

All Asian markets are trading higher; Nikkei 225 surged 168.24 points or 0.45% to 37,666.87, Taiwan Weighted added 12.43 points or 0.06% to 21,536.26, Hang Seng advanced 301.49 points or 1.28% to 23,634.21, KOSPI increased 2.29 points or 0.09% to 2,605.71, Straits Times rose 7.61 points or 0.2% to 3,883.81, Jakarta Composite gained 24.62 points or 0.34% to 7,165.71 and Shanghai Composite strengthened 12.87 points or 0.38% to 3,380.45.