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Bourses continue to trade lower in early afternoon session
Apr-24-2025

Indian equity markets continued to trade lower in early afternoon session as traders avoided to take risk amid monthly F&O expiry. Investors were looking forward for Q4 results from the bluechip companies. Sentiments remained downbeat as World Bank in its latest ‘South Asia Development Update’ has lowered India’s economic growth forecast for 2025-26 by 40 basis points to 6.3 per cent, over global economic weakness and policy uncertainty. Sector wise, steel sector remained in limelight as Indian Steel Association (ISA) has said that the government's decision to impose a 12 per cent provisional safeguard duty on imported flat steel products will help curb the influx of cheap imports, primarily from China, South Korea, and Japan. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as Japan's business services prices continued to increase in March but the pace of growth moderated for the second month. The services producer price index grew 3.1 percent on a yearly basis in March, following February's 3.2 percent increase.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 79868.56, down by 247.93 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 79829.11 and 80173.92. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.06%, while Small cap index was up by 0.46%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 0.77%, Basic Materials up by 0.67%, Metal up by 0.35%, IT up by 0.23% and Power was up by 0.02%, while Realty down by 1.36%, FMCG down by 0.66%, Auto down by 0.39%, Consumer Durables down by 0.38% and TECK was down by 0.35% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 5.18%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.65%, Tata Motors up by 0.85%, Sun Pharma up by 0.52% and ITC up by 0.46%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 3.80%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.50%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.28%, ICICI Bank down by 1.17% and Nestle down by 0.84% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Indian Steel Association (ISA) has said that the government's decision to impose a 12 per cent provisional safeguard duty on imported flat steel products will help curb the influx of cheap imports, primarily from China, South Korea, and Japan. According to ISA, these countries alone contributed around 78 per cent to the overall imports in FY25.  

ISA further said India became a net importer of finished steel for the second consecutive year, with imports reaching a nine-year high of 9.5 million metric tonnes in 2024-25. It said that the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has recommended this duty following an investigation initiated in December 2024. The probe revealed that the sharp increase in imports of non-alloy and alloy steel flat products was causing significant injury to domestic producers.

The industry body said the government's action aligns India with other countries seeking to control foreign steel imports and protect domestic manufacturing sectors. It noted that by creating a level playing field, the safeguard duty is expected to reinvigorate investor confidence and accelerate the sector's contribution to national growth.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24272.30, down by 56.65 points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 24239.45 and 24347.85. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 5.06%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.72%, Grasim Industries up by 1.66%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.15% and Tata Consumer up by 0.96%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 3.79%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.51%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.34%, ICICI Bank down by 1.21% and ONGC down by 0.94% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Nikkei 225 surged 170.52 points or 0.49% to 35,039.15, Jakarta Composite gained 19.2 points or 0.29% to 6,653.58, Straits Times rose 10.94 points or 0.29% to 3,843.26 and Shanghai Composite was up by 1.94 points or 0.06% to 3,298.30. On the flip side, KOSPI dropped 3.23 points or 0.13% to 2,522.33, Taiwan Weighted lost 160.33 points or 0.82% to 19,478.81 and Hang Seng was down by 247.54 points or 1.12% to 21,825.08.
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