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Indian bourses continued to trade in deep red in the afternoon session as US Federal Reserve’s signal to steadily tighten policy. Federal Reserve officials signaled that they were on track to raise interest rates in March, given that inflation has been running far above policymakers’ target and that labor market data suggests employees are in short supply. Sentiments were also down beat as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its latest update of World Economic Outlook has cut India's economic growth forecast to 9 per cent for the current fiscal year ending March 31 (FY22) from its earlier projection of a 9.5 per cent GDP growth, on concerns over the impact of a spread of new variant of coronavirus on business activity and mobility. Weak broader indices along with heavy sell off at Realty, IT and Consumer Durables counters, dragged the markets lower. On the global front, all Asian markets were under pressure as investor were concerns over political tensions between Russia and Ukraine exacerbated worries over tight energy market supply, keeping oil prices elevated at multi-year highs.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 56514.22, down by 1343.93 points or 2.32% after trading in a range of 56510.62 and 57317.38. There were 1 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 2.52%, while Small cap index was down by 1.59%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 3.65%, IT down by 3.50%, Consumer Durables down by 3.46%, TECK down by 3.12% and Healthcare was down by 2.38%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The only gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank was up by 0.87%. On the flip side, HCL Tech down by 4.53%, Titan Company down by 4.24%, Wipro down by 4.10%, Tech Mahindra down by 3.66% and Tata Steel was down by 3.50% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, ICRA Ratings in its latest report has said that the securitisation volumes in microfinance loans, which saw improvement in the first nine months of FY22, may witness some impact in the fourth quarter (Q4FY22) due to concerns around the third wave of COVID infections that may affect the repayment capabilities of the borrowers who have a marginal financial profile. In the first nine months of the current fiscal, there was a recovery in absolute terms with micro-loan securitisation volumes at around Rs 6,200 crore as compared to around Rs 1,900 crore in the year-ago period.

According to the report, microfinance entities would continue to see challenges in terms of raising funds through securitisation in the near term as investors remain wary of the performance of the borrowers given the unsecured nature of the loan. It said securitisation, which prior to the pandemic contributed between 30-40 per cent of the disbursements for NBFC-MFIs, has seen its share drop to sub-20 per cent post-pandemic with fewer entities able to tap the securitisation market.

The report further said share of microloan securitisation in overall securitisation has also declined from a peak share of 15 per cent in FY2020 to 10 per cent in FY2021 and around 8 per cent in nine months of FY2022. It said the collection efficiency seen in its rated micro-loan pools witnessed a decline during the moratorium period (April to August 2020) and again in Q1 FY2022 due to the second wave. However, it said the collections witnessed a healthy bounce back in the subsequent period, displaying the borrower resilience.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16882.80, down by 395.15 points or 2.29% after trading in a range of 16881.95 and 17073.15. There were 3 stocks advancing against 47 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 1.51%, Axis Bank up by 0.90% and ONGC was up by 0.39%. On the flip side, HCL Tech down by 4.51%, Titan Co down by 4.40%, Eicher Motors down by 4.10%, Wipro down by 4.08% and Tech Mahindra was down by 3.70% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading lower; KOSPI fell 94.75 points or 3.5% to 2,614.49, Hang Seng decreased 680.44 points or 2.8% to 23,609.46, Shanghai Composite declined 54.49 points or 1.58% to 3,401.18, Straits Times trembled 25.35 points or 0.77% to 3,246.22, Jakarta Composite lost 16.76 points or 0.25% to 6,584.06 and Nikkei 225 was down by 841.03 points or 3.11% to 26,170.30.