Weak trade continued on Dalal Street in late morning session, with both Sensex and Nifty trading in red terrain. Negative cues from other Asian markets impacted domestic sentiments. Traders got cautious, amid reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have pulled out Rs 4,515 crore from the equities segment in the first half of July as they turn cautious towards the Indian market. Sentiments also remained dampened as Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant expressed concern over high food inflation due to higher prices of oilseeds and edible oils.
On the global front, all Asian markets were trading in red, even after the total value of non-oil domestic exports in Singapore was up a seasonally adjusted 6.0 percent on month in June. The Department of Statistics said that exceeded expectations for an increase of 2.1 percent following the downwardly revised 0.2 percent decline in May (originally -0.1 percent). On a yearly basis, non-oil domestic exports surged 15.9 percent - again far surpassing forecasts for a gain of 9.7 percent and up sharply from the downwardly revised 8.6 percent increase in the previous month (originally 8.8 percent).
The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 52760.96, down by 379.10 points or 0.71% after trading in a range of 52506.40 and 52821.17. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.
The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.03%, while Small cap index was up by 0.28%.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.40%, Telecom up by 0.75%, Capital Goods up by 0.53%, Utilities up by 0.41% and Healthcare up by 0.32%, while Bankex down by 1.41%, IT down by 0.53%, Auto down by 0.53%, TECK down by 0.45% and Consumer Discretionary down by 0.21% were the top losing indices on BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 0.92%, NTPC up by 0.84%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.60%, Nestle up by 0.53% and Tata Steel up by 0.49%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 2.85%, HDFC down by 1.91%, Indusind Bank down by 1.40%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.16% and Axis Bank down by 1.15% were the top losers.
Meanwhile, Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC) has said that the country's services exports are expected to grow 10 per cent in 2021-22 due to healthy growth of sectors such as professional and management consulting, audio visual, freight transport, and telecommunications. SEPC Chairman Maneck Davar said despite the pandemic, the sector recorded a decline of only 3 per cent in exports in 2020-21 to $205.27 billion. The exports in 2019-20 and 2018-19 stood at $214.61 billion and $205.79 billion, respectively. He said ‘Based on the RBI data, we are confident that we will again experience high growth as services exports are projected to grow by 10 per cent in 2021-22 due to the performance of sectors such as professional and management consulting services, audio visual and related services, freight transport services, telecommunications, computer and information services’.
To further boost the shipments, Davar suggested that the government should frame an incentive scheme in the forthcoming foreign trade policy which should be result-oriented and support MSMEs, which accounts for over 90 per cent of the services sector. He added ‘We have submitted a Duty Remission on Export of Services scheme (DRESS) similar to RoDTEP (Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products), I personally think that a less complex scheme can be devised which will truly incentivise services exports and link the same to growth’. He said there are a lot of sectors with huge potential such as telemedicine, business services, healthcare and education where exports can be increased substantially.
He also said ‘We are preparing a roadmap to submit to the government to further increase services exports’. Over the years, the key markets for India's services exports are advanced countries like the US, UK, Germany, the Netherlands and France. However, in recent years, he said, the Council has experienced a massive growth in exports to Ireland, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovenia. India is looking to expand its exports in sectors such as professional and management consulting services, charges for intellectual property rights, financial services, entertainment services including audio visual and gaming, auditing services, education and healthcare.
The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15820.25, down by 103.15 points or 0.65% after trading in a range of 15735.95 and 15836.90. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.
The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 2.38%, Divi's Lab up by 1.03%, Larsen & Toubro up by 0.96%, Tata Consumer Products up by 0.85% and NTPC up by 0.84%. On the flip side, HDFC Bank down by 2.91%, HDFC down by 1.87%, Indusind Bank down by 1.50%, ONGC down by 1.24% and Axis Bank down by 1.24% were the top losers.
All the Asian markets were trading in red; Hang Seng decreased 446.26 points or 1.59% to 27,558.42, Taiwan Weighted dropped 92.76 points or 0.52% to 17,802.49, Jakarta Composite lost 40.83 points or 0.67% to 6,031.68, KOSPI fell 29.51 points or 0.9% to 3,247.40, Shanghai Composite declined 11.14 points or 0.31% to 3,528.16, Straits Times trembled 26.55 points or 0.84% to 3,125.75 and Nikkei 225 slipped 321.68 points or 1.15% to 27,681.40.