Key gauges add some losses in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks added some losses in morning deals, as elevated crude oil prices, escalation in US-Iran hostilities and concerns over a possible US interest rate hike weighed on investors' sentiment. Traders overlooked the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) data showing that India's forex reserves jumped $11.475 billion to a new all-time high of $740.803 billion during the week ended August 28. Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has called for making the pharmaceutical sector more attractive for investments in clinical trials and research and development, while urging domestic regulators to look at global practices and adopt best practices. 

Both Sensex and Nifty remained in the red during morning deals, with broad-based selling in heavyweight stocks. IT stocks were the weakest, followed by Metal and TECK counters. Market sentiment was further weighed down by exchange data showing that Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 3,111.94 crore on Friday. 

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mixed following the negative cues from Wall Street on Friday, as traders remain concerned about rising crude oil prices and related inflationary pressures after reports the US and Iran exchanged strikes on ships over the weekend. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 76198.09, down by 317.34 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 76161.43 and 76477.19. There were 7 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.59%, Healthcare up by 0.51%, Industrials up by 0.43%, Capital Goods up by 0.28% and Utilities up by 0.17%, while IT down by 1.72%, Metal down by 1.31%, TECK down by 1.07%, Realty down by 0.96% and Basic Materials down by 0.63% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharat Electronics up by 0.83%, Larsen & Toubro up by 0.81%, Maruti Suzuki India up by 0.32%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.32% and ICICI Bank up by 0.25%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 2.65%, Tata Steel down by 1.90%, HCL Technologies down by 1.57%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.54% and State Bank of India down by 0.88% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has called for making the pharmaceutical sector more attractive for investments in clinical trials, patenting products, conducting research and development (R&D) and introducing new products in India. He urged domestic regulators to look at global practices and adopt best practices. He also emphasized developing resilient supply chains to avoid dependence on single geographies for necessary imports.  

On investments, the minister said there was a need to keep an open mind and move away from a protective approach, as such practices were no longer relevant. He asked the domestic regulators to study regulations of developed countries, take a cue from what is happening in the world. He said ‘and look at your own regulations for more regulatory convergence with the developed world because unless our mindset and thoughts are aligned with the developed world, India cannot aim to become a developed country for 2047.’ He also said ‘we need to hear the investors who want to come to India, hear the demand of governments globally and together craft out a new pathway for success of the industry in the years to come’. 

He further said the whole world is now looking for resilience as countries are not comfortable if a country or company is dependent on one or two geographies or if a supply chain has a potential threat of being weaponised which could hurt the entire industry. He said ‘we have lost out on APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) and KSMs (key starting materials) and all... but now is the time to get back by resilience.’ He added that now developing countries like India are competing with rich countries in attracting investments, besides goods and services. He said ‘look at the US, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Singapore, all of Europe, they are trying to attract investments in their geographies, adding that gone are the days when only developing countries like India were attracting investments.’ He also suggested that the pharma industry consider investing in other countries, as it now needs a global outlook.  

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23799.10, down by 98.60 points or 0.41% after trading in a range of 23789.45 and 23890.00. There were 12 stocks advancing against 38 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Larsen & Toubro up by 0.82%, Apollo Hospital up by 0.78%, Power Grid up by 0.73%, Bharat Electronics up by 0.67% and Eicher Motors up by 0.52%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 2.96%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.98%, Tata Steel down by 1.90%, HCL Technologies down by 1.58% and Ultratech Cement down by 1.51% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Jakarta Composite plunged 8.29 points or 0.12% to 6,628.19, Shanghai Composite weakened 6.26 points or 0.16% to 3,923.86, Hang Seng declined 282.87 points or 1.1% to 25,368.00 and Straits Times fell 2.54 points or 0.04% to 5,799.42.

On the flip side, KOSPI increased 266.79 points or 3.99% to 6,954.00, Nikkei 225 surged 1244.06 points or 1.91% to 66,265.00 and Taiwan Weighted added 723.99 points or 1.56% to 47,275.12.