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Key gauges trade lower in morning deals
Mar-12-2025

Indian equity benchmarks were trading lower in morning deals, due to highly volatile global trends amid uncertainties over trade tariff. Traders remained on sidelines ahead of retail inflation data for February and industrial production figures for January due later in the day. Some concern came as exchange data showed foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 2,823.76 crore on a net basis on Tuesday. Traders overlooked Reserve Bank of India’s statement that with the normalisation of post-pandemic pent-up demand conditions, the growth in net sales of select FDI companies moderated to 9.3 per cent during 2023-24 from the high of 20.3 per cent in the previous year. Sector-wise, stocks related to Fertilisers sector remained in watch as the government data showed India has imported 44.19 lakh tonnes of Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP), a key fertiliser, till February of this fiscal. The country had imported 55.67 lakh tonnes in the entire 2023-24 fiscal. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green, diverging from Wall Street’s choppy session as regional investors brushed off concerns over US trade policy shifts under President Donald Trump. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 73944.52, down by 157.80 points or 0.21% after trading in a range of 73862.57 and 74392.15. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.84%, while Small cap index was down by 0.11%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 0.73%, Energy up by 0.41%, Oil & Gas up by 0.36%, Auto up by 0.29% and Utilities up by 0.26%, while IT down by 3.38%, TECK down by 2.90%, Telecom down by 1.91%, Realty down by 0.97% and Capital Goods down by 0.67% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 4.79%, Tata Motors up by 3.28%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 3.18%, HDFC Bank up by 1.28% and Reliance Industries up by 0.50%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 4.83%, HCL Technologies down by 3.58%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.32%, TCS down by 2.05% and Nestle down by 1.68% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that with the normalisation of post-pandemic pent-up demand conditions, the growth in net sales of select FDI companies moderated to 9.3 per cent during 2023-24 from the high of 20.3 per cent in the previous year. The RBI has released the data relating to financial performance of non-government non-financial (NGNF) FDI companies in India during 2023-24 based on audited annual accounts of 2,418 companies, which reported in the Indian Accounting Standards (Ind-AS) format for three accounting years from 2021-22 to 2023-24. During 2023-24, manufacturing and services sectors recorded lower sales growth of 6.4 per cent and 12.7 per cent, respectively. Although the moderation in sales growth was broad-based across the major industries within the manufacturing and services sectors, the 'Wholesale and retail trade' and 'Electricity, gas, steam and air condition supply' industries remained exceptions. 

The paid-up capital (PUC) of these companies amounted to Rs 5,30,160 crore, which accounted for 51.1 per cent of the total PUC of FDI companies that had reported in the 2023-24 round of the RBI's annual census of foreign liabilities and assets of Indian direct investment companies. RBI has said that nearly half of the sample companies received direct investment from Singapore, Mauritius and the US, while Japan, the Netherlands, UK and Germany were other major countries which made direct investment in India. A major chunk of the sample companies belonged to manufacturing and services sectors, with about one-third of companies belonging to information and communication industries within services sector. 

On expenditure, RBI has said that with moderation in growth of manufacturing expenses and renumeration to employees, operating expenses recorded rise of 7.8 per cent during 2023-24, in tandem with the slowdown in sales growth. It added that despite lower growth in sales, cost rationalisation helped operating profits grow by 20.4 per cent during 2023-24 from 15.3 per cent growth during the previous year, at aggregate level; operating profit of manufacturing and services sectors increased by 20.4 per cent and 19.0 per cent, respectively.

Private limited FDI companies recorded higher profit growth as compared to public limited FDI companies. With higher growth in profit, share of internal sources of funds in total sources of funds increased to 52.1 per cent during 2023-24 from 48.1 per cent in the previous year; consequently, share of external sources of funds moderated to 47.9 per cent during 2023-24, mainly due to significantly lower increase in trade payables. During 2023-24, share of funds utilised for gross fixed capital formation in total sources of funds moderated to 38.8 per cent (48.3 per cent in 2022-23), while share of 'investment in equity instruments', 'bank balances other than cash and cash equivalents' increased during 2023-24.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22442.95, down by 54.95 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 22410.15 and 22577.40. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 5.03%, Tata Motors up by 3.42%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 3.04%, BPCL up by 1.59% and Trent up by 1.30%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 5.09%, Infosys down by 4.79%, HCL Technologies down by 3.53%, Tech Mahindra down by 2.34% and TCS down by 2.11% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 101.1 points or 0.27% to 36,894.21, Taiwan Weighted added 132.7 points or 0.6% to 22,203.79, KOSPI increased 34.38 points or 1.35% to 2,571.98, Straits Times rose 2.55 points or 0.07% to 3,828.38 and Jakarta Composite gained 101.6 points or 1.55% to 6,647.45.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite weakened 4.66 points or 0.14% to 3,375.17 and Hang Seng declined 158.59 points or 0.67% to 23,623.55.
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