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Languishing at day’s low, local equity markets were trading with nasty cut of over 1.50% each, which dragged Sensex and Nifty below psychologically crucial 58000 and 17300 levels respectively. Meanwhile, broader indices too capitulating to selling pressure were trading with heavy losses of around 3% each. Sentiments were fragile as former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said the Indian economy has some bright spots and a number of very dark stains and the government should target its spending carefully so that there are no huge deficits. Rajan also said the government needs to do more to prevent a K-shaped recovery of the economy hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Traders paid no heed toward RBI’s data showing that the country's foreign exchange reserves grew by $2.229 billion to $634.965 billion in the week ended January 14. During the reporting week ended January 14, the jump in the foreign exchange reserves was on account of a rise in the foreign currency assets (FCAs), a major component of the overall reserves, and the gold reserves.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly lower as investors looked ahead to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting this week. Closer home, most of the sectoral indices on BSE were reeling under pressure. Stocks from realty, consumer durable and metal counters were the prominent losers of the session. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 2998: 496; while 122 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57955.12, down by 1082.06 points or 1.83% after trading in a range of 57935.02 and 59023.97. 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 3.16%, while Small cap index was down by 4.06%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 4.94%, Consumer Durables down by 3.69%, Metal down by 3.59%, Basic Materials down by 3.53% and Consumer Discretionary down by 3.50%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The only gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel was up by 0.45%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 4.37%, Titan Company down by 4.32%, Bajaj Finance down by 4.19%, Wipro down by 4.01% and Tata Steel was down by 3.98% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal has said that a year 2022 will be the breakthrough year which will unlock the country's exponential value. He noted that services export has reached more than $178 billion in April-December 2021 despite the Covid-19 pandemic when the Travel, Hospitality & Tourism sectors were significantly down.

Goyal lauded the ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services) industry including the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector for the record Services exports during the last year and informed that the government has taken several steps to boost the start-up ecosystem, as removing problems of 'Angel tax', simplification of tax procedure & allowing self-certification and self-regulation, reducing the burden of over 26,500 compliances and decriminalization of 770 compliances.

The minister has said that the New India is today being led by a new troika of Innovation, Technology & Entrepreneurship (ITE), which in a way has grown further from the original ICE (Information, Communication & Entertainment) and India's unique digital infrastructure - Aadhaar, Digilocker, Fastag, Cowin, UPI have enabled Access & Affordability. He also unveiled a five-point plan as the way forward for the NASSCOM as emphasis on basic & core needs of people, providing better access to financial services, education & healthcare; solutions to problems of farmers; Focus on High growth & Job creating sectors, Advertising & Marketing, Professional services, Fitness & Wellness wirh Yoga becoming popular globally, Gaming, Sports, Audio-Visual services; AI, IoT, Big Data, Data Analytics, Blockchain, Virtual Reality, 3D Printing and Drones.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17285.25, down by 331.90 points or 1.88% after trading in a range of 17280.45 and 17599.40. There were 3 stocks advancing against 47 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 2.39%, ONGC up by 1.22% and Bharti Airtel was up by 0.47%. On the flip side, JSW Steel down by 4.74%, Tech Mahindra down by 4.35%, Titan Company down by 4.28%, Bajaj Finance down by 4.23% and Hindalco was down by 4.10% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly lower; KOSPI fell 42.44 points or 1.5% to 2,791.85, Hang Seng decreased 269.10 points or 1.08% to 24,696.45, Shanghai Composite declined 1.04 points or 0.03% to 3,521.53, Straits Times trembled 14.10 points or 0.43% to 3,280.76 and Jakarta Composite was down by 63.70 points or 0.95% to 6,662.67.

On the other hand, Nikkei 225 surged 66.11 points or 0.24% to 27,588.37 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 89.74 points or 0.5% to 17,989.04.