Bears tighten grip over Dalal Street

Indian equity markets have extended their losses as lingering uncertainty over trade deal between India and US continued to weigh on investors’ sentiments ahead of US President Donald Trump’s tariff deadline of August 1. Besides, traders remained on sidelines amid continuous foreign fund outflows by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs). The FIIs were the net seller in Friday’s trade, offloading equities worth Rs 1,979.96 crore. Traders also awaits for release of India's industrial and manufacturing production data for June for further cues. 

On the global front, Asian equity markets are trading mostly in green tracking positive cues from Wall Street overnight. All European equity markets were trading higher after the US and European Union agreed on a hard-fought deal, helping avert a potentially damaging trade war.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 80878.99, down by 584.10 points or 0.72% after trading in a range of 80776.44 and 81557.41. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index decreased 0.77%, while Small cap index was down by 1.35%.

The lone gaining sectoral index on the BSE was Utilities up by 0.09%, while Realty down by 3.79%, Capital Goods down by 1.79%, Industrials down by 1.56%, Telecom down by 1.46%, Bankex down by 1.38% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 0.89%, ICICI Bank up by 0.57%, Asian Paints up by 0.42%, Power Grid Corporation up by 0.38% and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries up by 0.34%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 7.26%, Bajaj Finance down by 3.42%, Bharat Electronics down by 2.42%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.25% and Titan Company down by 1.86% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that India will not allow ‘evergreening’ of patents. He said that India has a robust intellectual property rights (IPR) chapter in both the free trade agreements with the UK and the four-nation block EFTA. He said ‘we will not allow any ever greening, and despite that we still have a robust IPR chapter with two of the toughest countries of the world in IPR - Switzerland and the UK.’ Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act, 1970, restricts patents for already-known drugs unless the new claims are superior in terms of efficacy, while Section 3(b) bars patents for products that are against public interest and do not demonstrate enhanced efficacy over existing products. Certain multinational firms have asked India to amend these laws, which were strongly opposed.

Goyal stated that ever-greening of patent rights is a strategy allegedly adopted by the innovators having patent rights over products to renew them by bringing in some minor changes, such as adding new mixtures or formulations. It is done when their patent is about to expire. A patent on the new form would have given the innovator company a 20-year monopoly on the drug. Pharma firms from countries, including Switzerland and the UK, are demanding evergreening of patents. The IPR chapter in these agreements is ‘a big signal that India is emerging out of the shadows and sitting on a high table with developed countries’.

Talking about collaboration in the critical minerals sector with the UK, he said India and the UK both have concerns and common interests in this area after the ban imposed by (China) on rare earth permanent magnets. The whole world has woken up to the reality that concentration of certain geographies in their supply chains can be harmful, and can suffer consequences in case of any unilateral action. Therefore, India and the UK are now looking to work together both for collaborating on the processing and refining of minerals and making finished products together.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24680.05, down by 156.95 points or 0.63% after trading in a range of 24646.60 and 24889.20. There were 18 stocks advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Shriram Finance up by 2.60%, Cipla up by 2.06%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.28%, Grasim Industries up by 1.07% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.87%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 7.29%, Wipro down by 3.65%, Bajaj Finance down by 3.47%, Bharat Electronics down by 2.53% and Bharti Airtel down by 2.25% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Hang Seng advanced 129.65 points or 0.51% to 25,518.00, Jakarta Composite gained 112.53 points or 1.47% to 7,656.03, KOSPI increased 13.47 points or 0.42% to 3,209.52, Taiwan Weighted added 48.6 points or 0.21% to 23,412.98 and Shanghai Composite strengthened 4.28 points or 0.12% to 3,597.94, while Nikkei 225 slipped 403.23 points or 0.98% to 41,053.00 and Straits Times fell 6.49 points or 0.15% to 4,254.57.

All European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 9.44 points or 0.1% to 9,129.75, France’s CAC rose 47.22 points or 0.6% to 7,881.80 and Germany’s DAX gained 85.4 points or 0.35% to 24,302.90.