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Benchmarks continue to trade lower in morning deals
Apr-16-2024

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower in morning deals, as escalation in the Iran-Israel war triggered a risk-off sentiment. Markets sentiment remained down-beat with commerce ministry’s data indicating that India's merchandise exports declined marginally in March 2024 to $41.68 billion, while for the entire 2023-24 it dipped 3.11 per cent to $437.06 billion, as geopolitical issues continued to hamper global shipments. Imports, too, declined 5.98 per cent to $57.28 billion in March, taking the trade deficit to $15.6 billion during the month. Traders took a note of former Reserve Bank Governor D Subbarao’s statement that even after becoming the third largest economy in the world by 2029 as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India may still be a poor country and therefore there is no reason for celebration. Market participants overlooked India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) statement that India is likely to experience above-normal cumulative rainfall in the 2024 monsoon season with La Nina conditions likely to set in by August-September. IMD predicts 2024 southwest monsoon season (June to September) rainfall over the country as a whole to be above normal (>104% of the Long Period Average (LPA)). Seasonal rainfall is likely to be 106% of LPA with a model error of ± 5%. LPA of monsoon rainfall (1971-2020) is 87 cm. On the global front, Asian markets are trading lower as expectations of likely delay in U.S. rate cuts added to investor concerns already weighed by geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 73002.52, down by 397.26 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 72814.15 and 73135.43. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.21%, while Small cap index was up by 0.77%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.55%, Energy up by 1.04%, Metal up by 0.66%, Utilities up by 0.38% and PSU up by 0.38%, while Realty down by 1.11%, IT down by 0.87%, TECK down by 0.82%, Bankex down by 0.60% and Capital Goods down by 0.23% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 0.81%, Nestle up by 0.58%, Titan Company up by 0.38%, Tata Motors up by 0.29% and HDFC Bank up by 0.20%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.74%, Indusind Bank down by 1.70%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.60%, Infosys down by 1.28% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.93% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in its latest data has said domestic airlines carried 133.68 lakh passengers in March 2024, an increase of nearly 3.7 per cent on an annual basis. In March 2023, domestic air traffic stood at 128.93 lakh and the count stood at 126.48 lakh in February this year.

It stated, in terms of On Time Performance (OTP), Akasa Air topped the list at 84.5 per cent, followed by AIX Connect (83 per cent), IndiGo (81.3 per cent), Vistara (76.6 per cent), Air India (71.9 per cent) and SpiceJet (63.6 per cent). It added Alliance Air's OTP was the lowest at 48.6 per cent. The OTP of scheduled domestic airlines is computed for four metro airports -- Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.

Meanwhile, IndiGo's market share rose to 60.5 per cent in March while that of Air India increased to 13.1 per cent. The market share of Vistara dropped to 9.6 per cent whereas that of SpiceJet inched up to 5.3 per cent. However, Akasa Air's market share slipped marginally to 4.4 per cent and AIX Connect's declined to 5.8 per cent. Further, it stated, in March, more than 2 lakh passengers were affected by flight delays while cancellations impacted 23,675 passengers. As many as 943 passengers were denied boarding.

Besides, it said Passengers carried by domestic airlines during January - March 2024 were 391.46 lakhs as against 375.04 lakhs during the corresponding period of the previous year thereby registering an annual growth of 4.38 per cent and monthly growth of 3.68 per cent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22190.80, down by 81.70 points or 0.37% after trading in a range of 22103.85 and 22213.75. There were 11 stocks advancing against 39 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 3.79%, Eicher Motors up by 1.71%, BPCL up by 0.92%, Hero MotoCorp up by 0.50% and Hindalco up by 0.48%. On the flip side, LTIMindtree down by 2.43%, Indusind Bank down by 1.99%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.74%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.50% and Infosys down by 1.48% were the top losers.

All Asian markets are trading lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 814.38 points or 2.08% to 38,418.42, Taiwan Weighted lost 578.8 points or 2.83% to 19,870.97, Hang Seng declined 320.9 points or 1.97% to 16,279.56, Straits Times fell 41.01 points or 1.29% to 3,142.60, KOSPI dropped 62.58 points or 2.34% to 2,607.85, Jakarta Composite plunged 139.11 points or 1.91% to 7,147.77 and Shanghai Composite weakened 43.54 points or 1.44% to 3,013.84.
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