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Indian equity benchmarks continued their weak trade in afternoon session, with the Sensex losing over 400 points and Nifty falling below the 15,650 level, amid nervousness in the global markets after China's tech crackdown and ahead of the outcome of the US Federal Reserve's policy meeting. Sentiments were fragile as IMF cut India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast to 9.5 percent for the fiscal year to March 31, 2022 as the onset of a severe second COVID-19 wave cut into recovery momentum. This forecast for 2021-22 is lower than the 12.5 per cent growth in GDP that IMF had projected in April before the second wave took a grip. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly lower ahead of Federal Reserve policy meeting, where officials are expected to consider when and how to taper the central bank’s $120 billion in monthly dulled the market sentiments.

Back home, auto components maker Rolex Rings initial public offer was fully subscribed within hours of opening on Wednesday. The IPO received bids for 63,47,712 shares against 56,85,556 shares on offer, translating into 1.12 times subscription. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of declines which thumped advances in the ratio of 1953:1155; while 102 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 52176.22, down by 402.54 points or 0.77% after trading in a range of 51802.73 and 52673.69. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.57%, while Small cap index was down by 0.83%.

The few gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 3.70%, TECK up by 0.16% and FMCG was up by 0.05%, while Bankex down by 1.47%, Utilities down by 1.43%, Power down by 1.33%, Realty down by 1.22% and Energy was down by 1.07% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.98%, Indusind Bank up by 1.37%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.95%, Bajaj Finserv up by 0.85% and Titan Company was up by 0.42%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 3.01%, Axis Bank down by 2.30%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.07%, NTPC down by 2.02% and Kotak Mahindra Bank as down by 1.94% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) director general, Willie Walsh has said that the Indian aviation market's recovery has been significantly impacted by caps on fare and capacity that has been placed by the government since May last year.  It said when India resumed the scheduled domestic flights on May 25 last year after a two-month break in view of COVID-19 lockdown, it had allowed the carriers to operate not more than 33 per cent of their pre-Covid domestic services. This capacity cap has been gradually increased and it now stands at 65 per cent.

Walsh noted that currently, Indian carriers are operating approximately 1,700 domestic flights daily, which is around 55 per cent of their pre-COVID services. Along with capacity cap, India had imposed lower and upper caps on airfares based on flight duration when services were resumed on May 25 last year. The fare caps are still in place.

He said ‘fare caps distort competition. All airlines have different cost bases and are in a position to offer capacity in the market at different prices. That is very positive to stimulate competition.’ The recovery has been significantly impacted by the regulation (fare caps and capacity cap) that has been put in place.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15637.25, down by 109.20 points or 0.69% after trading in a range of 15513.45 and 15767.50. There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.56%, SBI Life Insurance up by 2.34%, Indusind Bank up by 1.73%, Divi's Lab up by 1.43% and Hindustan Unilever was up by 0.98%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 2.97%, NTPC down by 2.36%, Axis Bank down by 2.24%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.09% and Cipla was down by 2.00% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Shanghai Composite declined 15.04 points or 0.44% to 3,366.14, Taiwan Weighted dropped 134.65 points or 0.78% to 17,135.22, Jakarta Composite lost 5.88 points or 0.1% to 6,091.17, Straits Times trembled 3.11 points or 0.1% to 3,135.70 and Nikkei 225 was down by 388.56 points or 1.39% to 27,581.66. On the flip side, Hang Seng increased 324.85 points or 1.29% to 25,411.28 and KOSPI was up by 4.33 points or 0.13% to 3,236.86.

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