The benchmark stock indices have opened the day on a flat note with some minor gains.
Government data suggest that the country's trade deficit has eased despite a sharp fall in exports.
Join us as we follow the top business news through the day.
Exports fall 12.7%, trade deficit eases to $6.77 bn
Contracting for the sixth straight month, India’s exports slipped 12.7% to $22.7 billion in August, on account of decline in the shipments of petroleum, leather, engineering goods and gems and jewellery items, according to government data released on Tuesday.
The country’s merchandise imports too declined 26% to $29.47 billion in August, leading to a trade deficit of $6.77 billion, compared with a $13.86 billion deficit a year earlier.
Oil imports declined 41.6% to $6.42 billion in the month under review. Gold imports jumped to $3.7 billion in August as against $1.36 billion in August 2019.
Sensex, Nifty start on cautious note amid tepid global cues
Yet another flat opening to the stock bourses this morning.
PTI reports: "Domestic equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty opened on a cautious note on Wednesday tracking mixed cues from global markets ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s policy outcome.
The 30-share BSE index was trading 53.41 points or 0.14 per cent higher at 39,097.76; while the NSE Nifty rose 14.40 points or 0.12 per cent to 11,536.20.
M&M was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising around 3 per cent, followed by Bajaj Auto, Maruti, L&T, Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement and Nestle India.
On the other hand, HCL Tech, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance and SBI were among the laggards.
In the previous session, Sensex ended 287.72 points or 0.74 per cent higher at 39,044.35, while Nifty rose 81.75 points or 0.71 per cent to 11,521.80.
Meanwhile, exchange data showed that foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 1,170.89 crore on a net basis on Tuesday.
Domestic equities opened on a cautious note tracking mixed cues from global markets ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s policy outcome, traders said.
The American central bank began its latest meeting on interest-rate policy on Tuesday, and it will announce its decision later in the day.
Bourses in Shanghai and Hong Kong were in the red, while Seoul and Tokyo were trading with gains in mid-day deals.
Stock exchanges on Wall Street ended higher in overnight trade.
Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 1.51 per cent higher at USD 41.14 per barrel."
SpiceJet logs ₹593 cr. loss, revenue plunges to a sixth
Low-cost carrier SpiceJet on Tuesday reported a net loss of ₹593.4 crore in the first quarter ended June, compared with a profit of ₹261.7 crore in the year-earlier quarter.
This figure includes the ₹195 crore as income in the form of compensation from Boeing for the 13 grounded 737 MAXs, which the airline is yet to receive.
The airline’s operating revenue shrunk to a sixth of its pre-COVID-19 levels and stood at ₹514.7 crore for the reported period as against ₹3,002 crore in the same quarter last year.
Operating expenses were reduced by half to ₹1,303 crore, as more than half the fleet remained grounded because of government regulations for COVID-19.