Bourses trim some losses in late afternoon session

Indian markets trimmed some of their losses but continued to trade in red during late afternoon session tracing weak cues from other Asian markets. Investors were cautious ahead of India’s inflation data, which is due on December 12. Traders took note of report that Member of government think tank Niti Aayog, Ramesh Chand has said that India's agriculture sector growth is likely to be lower at 4 per cent in the financial year 2025-26 (FY26) compared to the rate of 4.6 per cent recorded in the previous fiscal. He added that it is difficult to attribute reasons for lower growth at this point of time. He noted that the agri growth keeps fluctuating as base effect is low. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red ahead of monetary policy announcement by the US Fed. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 84901.66, down by 201.03 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 84382.96 and 84947.89. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.51%, while Small cap index was up by 0.85%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.40%, Capital Goods up by 0.87%, Industrials up by 0.85%, Power up by 0.78%, Telecom up by 0.69% while, IT down by 0.75%, TECK down by 0.56% and Auto was down by 0.26% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Titan Company up by 2.35%, Eternal up by 1.26%, Adani Ports up by 1.00%, Bajaj Finserv up by 0.87% and Bharat Electronics up by 0.78%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 3.75%, HCL Tech down by 1.14%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.04%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.03% and TCS down by 0.98% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has rejected Department of Telecom's (DoT) suggestion of increasing the annual spectrum fee charged from satcom (satellite communications) players to 5% from 4% and remove a Rs 500 fee per connection in urban areas. Along with 5% annual spectrum fee, the DoT also sought a provision of 1% discount if 5% customers of the company enrolled in a year are from tough terrains in border and remote hilly area. The TRAI’s response came following the Department of Telecom seeking some changes in the recommendation of the TRAI on satellite communications spectrum allocation methodology and charges for companies such as Elon Musk-led Starlink, Bharti Group-backed Eutelsat OneWeb, and Jio SES that are in fray to start their services in the country. 

Responding to DoT, TRAI has reiterated its recommendations, however it said that the government may adopt any additional schemes to take advantage of FSS (fixed satellite services) for faster and economical expansion of broadband services in identified hard-to-connect areas, including but not limited to hills, border areas and islands, particularly addressing affordability of user terminals. It noted that if DoT's views are adopted to encourage satellite connections in border and tough terrains, then a lot of people in rural areas will be left behind in accessing satellite connectivity. 

Moreover, TRAI didn’t concur with DoT's proposal to charge the spectrum at the rate of 5% of AGR with conditional discounts for providing connectivity to hard-to-connect areas such as border/ hills/ islands. It indicated that the Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO)-based FSS providers may focus more on urban areas than that of rural areas given the relatively higher purchasing power of subscribers in urban areas leading to high demand and consumption of data in these regions. This potentially undermine the goal of bridging the digital divide in rural and remote areas. To address this, it has suggested imposing a per subscriber charge of Rs 500 per annum in urban areas, while exempting rural and remote areas which may provide an incentive for operators to expand their services into rural and remote areas, and if required, this per subscriber charge may be reviewed in future.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25921.55, down by 39.00 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 25728.00 and 25921.85. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Titan Company up by 2.25%, Shriram Finance up by 1.41%, Eternal up by 1.37%, Adani Enterprises up by 1.30% and Grasim Industries up by 1.01%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 3.78%, HCL Tech down by 1.16%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.01%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.90% and ICICI Bank down by 0.86% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 304.36 points or 1.18% to 25,461.00, Taiwan Weighted lost 121.18 points or 0.43% to 28,182.60, Jakarta Composite plunged 62.41 points or 0.72% to 8,648.29, Shanghai Composite weakened 13.93 points or 0.35% to 3,910.15 and KOSPI was down by 11.30 points or 0.27% to 4,143.55. On the flip side, Straits Times rose 0.71 points or 0.02% to 4,507.79 and Nikkei 225 was up by 70.06 points or 0.14% to 50,652.00.