Bears continued to rule the Dalal Street in early afternoon deals, amid broad-based selling as traders remained cautious with escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East after the U.S.-Iran conflict grows wider, with the U.S. targeting Iran civil infrastructures. The related spike in crude oil prices also renewed global inflationary concerns. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed, even after the Malaysian foreign trade surplus increased notably in June from a year ago as exports grew faster than imports. The data from the statistical office showed that the trade surplus climbed to MYR 14.9 billion in June from MYR 9.0 billion in the same month last year.
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 77483.72, down by 667.73 points or 0.85% after trading in a range of 77444.79 and 78151.45. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.40%, Utilities up by 0.96%, Power up by 0.86%, Metal up by 0.70% and Basic Materials up by 0.57%, while Bankex down by 1.30%, Realty down by 1.03%, Auto down by 0.74%, IT down by 0.37% and Telecom down by 0.30% were the top losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Trent up by 2.84%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.36%, NTPC up by 1.21%, Power Grid up by 1.04% and HCL Technologies up by 0.88%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 5.49%, HDFC Bank down by 4.81%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.41%, Maruti Suzuki India down by 1.54% and Bajaj Finance down by 1.43% were the top losers.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Electronics and IT Secretary S Krishnan has said that provisions under Semicon 2.0 to provide incentives to Indian chip-making firms against equity are expected to drive largescale investment required for the development of advanced chips for technology such as artificial intelligence. Highlighting the need of investments for advance chip, he pointed that the government can provide only about Rs 15 crore under design-linked incentive scheme, while designing high-end chips may require Rs 1,000 crore or more. Therefore, chip-making firms can get investment from a venture capitalist or somebody who believes that the firm will be able to bring out chip.
On July 15, the government approved Rs 1.27 trillion (around $14 billion) Semicon 2.0 programme to accelerate semiconductor design and manufacturing capabilities. The initiative will be in effect for six years starting FY27. Krishnan noted that ‘The idea of co-investment is two-fold. One, that we increase the overall funding, which is available. Two, the government doesn't do the selection because it doesn't have that capacity. When whitelisted venture capitalist funds invest, we will co-invest,’.
Further, Krishnan said that the manufacturing of advance chips might take time but the design of these will happen in the coming years. Currently, advance chips are considered semiconductor that contain 7 nano meter and smaller nodes. India's first chip manufacturing unit will start with production old technology node of 28 nano meter, which is generally used for power electronics. The government approved Semicon 2.0 with an aim to develop IPs, designs of chips and systems. The work under Semicon 2.0 is expected to place India as a key semiconductor chip-design IP country.
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24166.25, down by 168.05 points or 0.69% after trading in a range of 24149.90 and 24262.35. There were 29 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.
The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 3.18%, Trent up by 2.24%, JSW Steel up by 1.75%, ONGC up by 1.48% and Bharti Airtel up by 1.28%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 5.63%, HDFC Bank down by 5.08%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 2.81%, Maruti Suzuki India down by 2.27% and JIO Financial Serv. down by 1.86% were the top losers.
Asian markets were trading mixed; Jakarta Composite gained 56.67 points or 0.92% to 6,232.21, Hang Seng advanced 513.76 points or 2.09% to 25,076.00 and Shanghai Composite strengthened 32.13 points or 0.85% to 3,796.28, while KOSPI dropped 304.33 points or 4.67% to 6,516.27, Taiwan Weighted lost 221.57 points or 0.52% to 42,449.70 and Straits Times fell 12.81 points or 0.23% to 5,496.62.
