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Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower in noon session, on the back of profit booking by investors after recent gains amid lackluster trade in Asia. Selling pressure in the Healthcare and Capital Goods stocks too influenced the markets. Traders were worried as India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) lowered India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecast to 7-7.2 per cent for FY23, from 7.6 per cent projected earlier, citing the rising uncertainty over Russia-Ukraine war and the resultant dampening of consumer sentiment. However, downside remain capped as International Monetary Fund said India, which has received a record number of foreign direct investment during the last few years despite COVID-19 crisis, has quite a few safeguards in place to mitigate the risks from capital flows. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly lower amid concerns over mounting inflationary pressure, imminent aggressive monetary policy measures by US Federal Reserve, and uncertainty over Russia-Ukraine reaching cease fire agreement.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58641.41, down by 42.58 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 58536.93 and 58890.92. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.27%, while Small cap index was up by 0.52%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.75%, Utilities up by 0.76%, Oil & Gas up by 0.73%, Power up by 0.72% and FMCG was up by 0.67%, while Healthcare down by 0.42%, Capital Goods down by 0.24%, TECK down by 0.16% and IT was down by 0.07% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.88%, Asian Paints up by 1.02%, Axis Bank up by 1.01%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.77% and Bajaj Finance was up by 0.76%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 1.42%, Wipro down by 0.90%, Infosys down by 0.82%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.74% and Bharti Airtel was down by 0.73% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the Rs 6,062.45 crore or $808 million 'Raising and Accelerating MSME Performance' (RAMP) for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to help improve their access to market and credit. RAMP will commence in FY23. Of the total outlay under the programme, Rs 3,750 crore ($500 million) will come from World Bank loan, and the remaining Rs 2,312.45 crore will be funded by the central government. RAMP will work under the Ministry of MSME (MoMSME) towards resilience and recovery interventions after the coronavirus disease.

The programme aims at improving access to market and credit, strengthening institutions and governance at the Centre and state, improving Centre-state linkages and partnerships, addressing issues of delayed payments and greening of MSMEs. In addition to building the MoMSME's capacity at the national level, the RAMP programme will seek to scale up implementation capacity and MSME coverage in states.

RAMP programme with impacts across the country will directly or indirectly benefit all 6.3 crore enterprises under the MSME category. A total of 5,55,000 MSMEs are specifically targeted for enhanced performance. In addition, expansion of target market to include service sectors and increase of about 70,500 women MSMEs is envisaged. RAMP has identified two result areas after preliminary missions and studies, first is to strengthen institutions and governance of the MSME programme and second is to support market access, firm capabilities and access to finance.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17486.40, down by 11.85 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 17456.70 and 17559.80. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.85%, JSW Steel up by 1.83%, Britannia Inds up by 1.42%, Adani Ports up by 1.41% and Tata Consumer Products was up by 1.40%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 3.86%, Apollo Hospital down by 1.65%, Divi's Lab down by 1.57%, Reliance Industries down by 1.23% and HDFC Life Insurance was down by 1.14% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly lower; Taiwan Weighted dropped 47.09 points or 0.27% to 17,693.47, Hang Seng decreased 233.66 points or 1.05% to 21,998.37, Shanghai Composite declined 15.29 points or 0.47% to 3,251.31, Straits Times trembled 11.40 points or 0.33% to 3,431.21 and Nikkei 225 was down by 205.82 points or 0.73% to 27,821.43.

On the flip side, KOSPI rose 10.97 points or 0.4% to 2,757.71 and Jakarta Composite was up by 14.39 points or 0.2% to 7,067.58.

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