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Indian equity benchmarks continued their weak trade in afternoon session, on the back of sustained selling activities by market-participants amid weakness across Asian peers. Sentiments were dampened as Crisil Research said that India Inc is staring at the third consecutive quarter of a year-on-year drop in profit margins for the April-June 2022 period. It added that operating profit margins have likely fallen by 2-3 percentage points for the June quarter as compared to the year-ago period. Additional pressure came amid a private report stating that though there are signs of easing commodity prices, the economic outlook for the current financial year 2022-23 remains quite uncertain and will ride completely on the wheels of private consumption and investment demand. Weak broader indices along with sell off at Metal, Basic Materials and Auto counters, dragged the markets lowers. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly lower amid renewed coronavirus outbreaks in China.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 54120.40, down by 274.83 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 54054.47 and 54236.49. There were 8 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 0.24%, while Small cap index was down by 0.10%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 1.89%, Power up by 1.82%, Telecom up by 1.59%, Oil & Gas up by 0.25% and Energy was up by 0.23%, while Metal down by 1.34%, Basic Materials down by 0.84%, Auto down by 0.77%, FMCG down by 0.71%, Consumer Discretionary was down by 0.67% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 2.08%, Axis Bank up by 0.57%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.48%, Wipro up by 0.44% and Dr. Reddy's Lab was up by 0.23%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.44%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.28%, Infosys down by 1.18%, Asian Paints down by 1.16% and ICICI Bank was down by 1.05% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the country's exports are likely to register a reasonable level of growth in the current financial year (FY23) despite the global uncertainties on the trade front. He said there are signs of a global slowdown in international trade and India is keeping a watchful eye on the developments by talking to all the export promotion councils and large exporters, and engaging with the Indian missions abroad.

The minister said ‘in the current global situation, our exports will stand based on price competitiveness and quality…We will calibrate the expectations of exports based on the ground reality.’ He also said ‘the whole world is facing severe challenges, Covid is not yet over…There is a geopolitical situation, which is not conducive, inflation worldwide is (a matter) of concern, petroleum products are still at high prices, food security concerns also are before us, and fertilizer shortages in many parts of the world are reported. In these challenging times, the fact that India prepared itself structurally and strengthened our basic readiness and capability to expand exports….Therefore a reasonable level of growth from last year can still be expected.’

Besides, talking about the new foreign trade policy (FTP), Goyal said the ministry is collecting inputs from all quarters to release a robust policy. Due to uncertainties all over the world and international trade, the ministry has extended the existing policy till September this year. In these challenging times, he said ‘we are looking at further ease of doing business, reducing compliance burden, decriminalizing existing laws, developing districts as export hubs, promoting our traditional areas where we are strong like textiles, pharmaceuticals, marine products, other Agri produce, handicrafts and handlooms, and leather goods, and we feel that the demand for these products will be robust in the long run’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 16122.55, down by 93.45 points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 16103.35 and 16158.75. There were 13 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 1.69%, Adani Ports up by 1.14%, Apollo Hospital up by 0.92%, Coal India up by 0.75% and Axis Bank was up by 0.60%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 2.79%, BPCL down by 1.80%, UPL down by 1.71%, Eicher Motors down by 1.64% and Britannia Inds was down by 1.50% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly lower; KOSPI fell 22.55 points or 0.96% to 2,317.72, Taiwan Weighted dropped 389.91 points or 2.72% to 13,950.62, Shanghai Composite declined 30.93 points or 0.93% to 3,282.65, Hang Seng decreased 273.15 points or 1.29% to 20,851.05 and Nikkei 225 was down by 475.64 points or 1.77% to 26,336.66.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite soared 9.54 points or 0.14% to 6,731.69 and Straits Times was up by 5.81 points or 0.19% to 3,137.07.

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