Weak trade persists over Dalal Street in early noon

A weak trade persisted over the Dalal Street in early afternoon session, after the Trump administration said it would impose new tariffs on heavy trucks, drugs and kitchen cabinets. Selling at almost all sectors except Realty also impacted domestic sentiments. Traders got a little bit anxious, as Crisil Intelligence in its note has said that US President Donald Trump's move to levy higher fees for granting the H-1B visas will impact Indian IT majors' profit margins by only 0.20%. This is because the reliance of IT companies on H-1B visas has been reducing since 2018, when the denial rates for the visa applications increased to 24%. Traders overlooked reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated that GST reforms will continue further, highlighting the benefits of new GST rate cut.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, as Singapore's industrial production declined in August on sharp contraction in biomedical manufacturing. The Economic Development Board said that manufacturing output shrank 7.8 percent in August from a year ago, offsetting July's 7.7 percent increase. Output was expected to drop only by 2.5 percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 80792.16, down by 367.52 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 80695.09 and 81033.09. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell by 1.13%, while Small cap index was down by 1.50%.

The only gaining sectoral index on the BSE was Realty up by 0.36%, while Healthcare down by 1.94%, Telecom down by 1.88%, IT down by 1.76%, TECK down by 1.44% and Basic Materials down by 1.30% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 3.99%, Tata Motors up by 2.21%, ITC up by 0.55%, Reliance Industries up by 0.52% and Maruti Suzuki up by 0.49%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 2.79%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.13%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.09%, Tata Steel down by 2.00% and HCL Tech. down by 1.85% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) in its latest report has said that India’s logistics cost is estimated at 7.97 per cent of country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023-24. Estimates derived for the previous five years showed that the pace of growth in the logistics cost is gradually slowing down. It pointed that several initiatives such as PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, dedicated freight corridors, Sagarmala project, integrated check posts, and development of the unified logistics interface platform, may have contributed in reducing the growth pace of logistics cost.

The report highlighted that rail logistics emerged as a cost-efficient mode, with an average cost of Rs 1.96 per tonne per km, which is significantly lower than road transport at Rs 11.03 per tonne per km, in cases where the first/last mile of the consignment is not taken into consideration. It noted that the air transportation is the most expensive mode of freight transportation despite being the fastest. The average logistic cost for air transportation is Rs 72 per tonne per km which largely limits its use to high-value, time-sensitive commodities. Meanwhile, citing a report, it said that logistics costs in Indonesia were relatively high at 24 per cent of GDP, while in South Korea they were much lower at around 8 per cent. In 2023, China estimated its logistics costs as 14.4 per cent of its GDP.

Earlier, a report on Assessment of Logistics Cost in India was launched by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal. With this, the country has now a comprehensive and scientifically derived estimate of logistics costs. The report provides a comprehensive framework by capturing logistics costs across different transport modes, product categories, and firm sizes. The development is important as until now, logistics costs in India were often misrepresented, with commonly cited figures of 13-14 per cent of GDP derived from external studies or partial datasets. This led to inconsistent estimates, causing confusion among policymakers and global stakeholders.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24778.30, down by 112.55 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 24737.55 and 24868.60. There were 11 stocks advancing against 39 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Larsen & Toubro up by 3.98%, Tata Motors up by 2.21%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.02%, Eicher Motors up by 1.02% and ITC up by 0.55%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 2.94%, Sun Pharma down by 2.74%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.19%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.10% and Tata Steel down by 2.07% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted lost 443.53 points or 1.73% to 25,580.32, Nikkei 225 slipped 310.93 points or 0.68% to 45,444.00, Hang Seng declined 201.68 points or 0.76% to 26,283.00, KOSPI dropped 85.06 points or 2.51% to 3,386.05, and Shanghai Composite weakened 22.83 points or 0.59% to 3,830.47, while Straits Times rose 1.01 points or 0.02% to 4,274.87 and Jakarta Composite gained 30.45 points or 0.38% to 8,071.12.