Bourses trim some losses in early afternoon session

Indian markets trimmed some of their losses in early afternoon session but continued to trade in red. US President Donald Trump's threat to impose higher tariffs on India dampened investors' sentiment. Besides, traders avoided to take risk ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) summary, which will be announced tomorrow. Traders overlooked the report that seasonally adjusted HSBC India Services PMI Business Activity Index grew to 60.5 in July from 60.4 in June. The rate of expansion was the best seen since August 2024. Further, the HSBC India Composite PMI Output Index -- which measures both manufacturing and services -- also surged to 61.1 in July as against 61.0 in June, indicating a sharp rate of expansion that was the quickest since April 2024.

On the global front, all Asian markets were trading higher as China's services activity expanded at the fastest pace in more than a year in July on rising inflows of new business. The headline general services business activity index rose to 52.6 in July from 50.6 in June. The index extended the current period of growth to just over two-and-a-half years. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 80794.87, down by 223.85 points or 0.28% after trading in a range of 80558.94 and 81010.49. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.06%, while Small cap index was down by 0.20%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 0.37%, Power up by 0.24%, Basic Materials up by 0.19%, Metal up by 0.13% and Telecom was up by 0.12%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.76%, Energy down by 0.68%, Realty down by 0.48%, Healthcare down by 0.48% and FMCG was down by 0.44% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 1.18%, Trent up by 0.98%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.91%, SBI up by 0.78% and Ultratech Cement up by 0.58%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.26%, Bharat Electronics down by 1.24%, Infosys down by 1.09%, Reliance Industries down by 1.08% and ICICI Bank down by 1.05% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the International Airport Transport Association (IATA) in its latest edition of the World Air Transport Statistics (WATS) for 2024, has showed that handling 211 million passengers, India emerged as the world's fifth biggest aviation market with Mumbai-Delhi being one of the busiest airport pairs in 2024. India saw 11.1% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) surge in air passengers to 211 million in 2024, ahead of Japan, which handled 205 million passengers with an annual rise of 18.6%. The report highlighted that US remains the world's biggest aviation market on the back of strength of its domestic market growing 5.2% Y-o-Y to 876 million passengers. Further, the China was the second-biggest passenger market, which grew 18.7% Y-o-Y to 741 million passengers, followed by the UK at the third spot with 261 million passengers and Spain at the fourth position with 241 million passengers.

Besides, Mumbai-Delhi airport was the seventh busiest airport, carrying 5.9 million passengers, among top 10 airport pairs in 2024. Further, among the world's busiest airport pairs Asia Pacific dominated the ranking with Jeju-Seoul (CJU-GMP) being the most popular route globally, with 13.2 million passengers flying between the two airports in 2024. Meanwhile, Jeddah-Riyadh (JED-RUH) was the only airport pair which among top 10 but not in the Asia Pacific region. 

The report also revealed that the international premium class travel -- business and first class -- grew 11.8%, outpacing growth in global economy travel of 11.5%. In 2024, the total number of international premium class travellers was 116.9 million or 6% of the total international passengers. In the Asia Pacific region economy class passenger numbers grew 28.6% year-on-year outpacing the growth of premium passengers, which grew 22.8% year-on-year. Meanwhile, the growth in premium travel exceeded economy class travel in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North America. Europe remained the largest market for international premium travel, with 39.3 million premium passengers, while premium travellers as a percentage of all travellers were highest in the Middle East at 14.7%.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24659.45, down by 63.30 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 24593.15 and 24733.10. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 2.08%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.35%, Trent up by 1.17%, Titan Company up by 0.91% and SBI up by 0.86%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 1.24%, Infosys down by 1.24%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 1.17%, Reliance Industries down by 1.16% and Bharat Electronics down by 1.13% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading higher; Taiwan Weighted added 281.65 points or 1.19 to 23,660.59, Nikkei 225 surged 251.3 points or 0.62 to 40,542.00, Jakarta Composite gained 72.58 points or 0.96 to 7,537.23, Hang Seng advanced 72.55 points or 0.29 to 24,806.00, KOSPI increased 50.25 points or 1.57 to 3,198.00, Shanghai Composite strengthened 32.33 points or 0.89 to 3,615.64 and Straits Times was up by 13.69 points or 0.33 to 4,210.92.