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Indian equity benchmarks added more losses in late morning session, as bears held a tight grip over Dalal Street. Both Sensex and Nifty were trading lower with sharp losses, on the back of negative cues from other Asian markets. Traders were worried, amid reports that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were net sellers to the tune of Rs 7,013 crore so far this month in the Indian markets on profit-booking as jitters in global bond markets spooked investors. As per depositories data, FPIs pulled out Rs 531 crore from equities and Rs 6,482 crore from the debt segment between Mar 1-13.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after the value of core machine orders in Japan slipped a seasonally adjusted 4.5 percent on month in January, the Cabinet Office said on Monday - standing at 841.7 billion yen. That exceeded expectations for a decline of 5.5 percent following the upwardly revised 5.3 percent increase in December (originally 5.2 percent). On a yearly basis, core machine orders climbed 1.5 percent - again beating forecasts for a decline of 0.2 percent after spiking 11.8 percent in the previous month.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 50010.89, down by 781.19 points or 1.54% after trading in a range of 49899.03 and 50834.78. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.53%, while Small cap index was down by 0.90%.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.44% and TECK up by 0.21%, while Bankex down by 2.59%, Energy down by 1.93%, Industrials down by 1.56%, Healthcare down by 1.54% and Capital Goods down by 1.49% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tech Mahindra up by 1.26%, HCL Tech up by 1.12%, TCS up by 1.08%, Power Grid up by 1.00% and Nestle up by 0.02%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 3.87%, Bajaj Finserv down by 3.57%, Bajaj Finance down by 3.03%, ICICI Bank down by 2.75% and SBI down by 2.66% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest data has showed that bank credit grew 6.36 per cent to Rs 106.41 trillion, while deposits increased by 11.41 per cent to Rs 146.25 trillion in the fortnight ended January 15. In the fortnight ended January 17, 2020, bank credit was at Rs 100.04 trillion and deposits stood at Rs 131.27 trillion. The data showed in the previous fortnight ended January 1, 2021, the year-on-year growth in bank credit was 6.7 per cent and 11.5 per cent in deposits.

During the first nine months of the current fiscal, bank credit rose by 3.2 per cent and deposits by 8.5 per cent. Loans to industry contracted by 1.2 per cent as compared to 1.6 per cent growth in December 2019, mainly due to decline in credit to large industries by 2.4 per cent during the reporting month as against 1.8 per cent growth a year ago.

Growth in credit to agriculture and allied activities accelerated to 9.4 per cent from 5.3 per cent in December 2019. Personal loans registered a decelerated growth of 9.5 per cent in the reporting month as compared to 15.9 per cent growth in December 2019. The data showed growth in advances to the services sector accelerated to 8.8 per cent in December 2020 from 6.2 per cent in December 2019 mainly on the back of acceleration in credit growth to transport operators and trade.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 14808.40, down by 222.55 points or 1.48% after trading in a range of 14776.20 and 15048.40. There were 10 stocks advancing against 40 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra up by 1.35%, HCL Tech. up by 1.17%, TCS up by 0.99%, Power Grid up by 0.84% and JSW Steel up by 0.54%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 3.82%, Bajaj Finserv down by 3.57%, Bajaj Finnce down by 3.21%, Coal India down by 3.16% and GAIL India down by 2.93% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; KOSPI fell 1.83 points or 0.06% to 3,052.56, Taiwan Weighted dropped 4.11 points or 0.03% to 16,251.07, Shanghai Composite declined 21.07 points or 0.61% to 3,432.01 and Jakarta Composite lost 27.96 points or 0.44% to 6,330.25. On the flip side, Hang Seng increased 167.43 points or 0.58% to 28,907.15, Nikkei 225 surged 41.97 points or 0.14% to 29,759.80 and Straits Times advanced 9.64 points or 0.31% to 3,104.86.

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