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Continuing their sluggish run, Indian equity benchmarks are trading with a cut of around a percent in noon deals as traders remained cautious over rising Delta variant of Covid-19 cases globally, fear of possible lockdown and impact of rising inflation on economic recovery. Traders were also concerned as Asian Development Bank has downgraded India's economic growth forecast for the current financial year to 10 percent from 11 percent projected in April, on account of the adverse impact of the coronavirus pandemic. India's GDP growth recovered to 1.6 percent in the last quarter of the fiscal year ended March 2021, narrowing contraction in the whole fiscal year from 8 percent estimated in April to a revised 7.3 percent. On the global front, Asian markets were trading lower mainly led by mounting concerns over the spread of the delta variant of the Coronavirus and increasing geopolitical tensions. Further, The Biden administration and Western allies formally blamed China for a massive hack of Microsoft Exchange email server software and asserted that criminal hackers associated with the Chinese government have carried out ransomware and other illicit cyber operations.

Back home, shares of Adani Group companies were under pressure on reports that securities regulator and customs authorities were investigating some of the group companies for non-compliance of rules. The overall market breadth was extremely negative as 2,190 shares were declining while 931 were advancing on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 52061.20, down by 492.20 points or 0.94% after trading in a range of 52013.51 and 52465.03. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index lost 1.69%, while Small cap index was down by 1.94%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal down by 2.65%, Realty down by 2.56%, Power down by 2.25%, Utilities down by 2.05% and Telecom was down by 2.04%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Ultratech Cement up by 2.40%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.10%, Asian Paints up by 0.73%, Nestle up by 0.53% and Bajaj Auto was up by 0.51%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 2.57%, ICICI Bank down by 2.46%, Tata Steel down by 2.39%, HCL Tech down by 2.36% and Bharti Airtel was down by 2.10% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in its latest data has indicated that around 31.13 lakh domestic passengers travelled by air in June, 47 percent higher than the 21.15 lakh who travelled in May. It said 57.25 lakh people had travelled within the country by air in April. The drop in domestic air traffic in May was due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic that had badly hit the country and its aviation sector.

According to the data shared by the DGCA, while IndiGo carried 17.02 lakh passengers in June, a 54.7 per cent share of the domestic market, SpiceJet flew 2.81 lakh passengers, accounting for a nine per cent share of the market. Air India, GO FIRST (previously known as GoAir), Vistara and AirAsia India carried 5.14 lakh, 2.58 lakh, 2.25 lakh and 1.07 lakh passengers, respectively in June. The occupancy rate or the load factor of the six major Indian airlines was between 54.4 per cent and 71 per cent in June.

Data further stated that the occupancy rate at SpiceJet was 71 per cent in June. The occupancy rates for IndiGo, Vistara, GO FIRST, Air India and AirAsia India were 62.7 per cent, 60 per cent, 70.9 per cent, 58.4 per cent and 54.4 per cent, respectively. The aviation sector has been significantly impacted due to the travel restrictions imposed in India and other countries in view of the pandemic. India resumed domestic passenger flights on May 25 last year after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus pandemic. Indian airlines are allowed to operate a maximum of 65 per cent of their pre-pandemic domestic flights.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 15603.35, down by 149.05 points or 0.95% after trading in a range of 15578.55 and 15728.45. There were 7 stocks advancing against 43 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 2.66%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.25%, Shree Cement up by 0.81%, Asian Paints up by 0.74% and Bajaj Auto was up by 0.49%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 2.91%, Indusind Bank down by 2.62%, ONGC down by 2.49%, HCL Tech down by 2.36% and ICICI Bank was down by 2.20% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading lower, KOSPI fell 11.34 points or 0.35% to 3,232.70, Shanghai Composite declined 4.22 points or 0.12% to 3,534.90, Taiwan Weighted dropped 260.51 points or 1.46% to 17,528.74, Nikkei 225 slipped 264.58 points or 0.96% to 27,388.16 and Hang Seng was down by 306.14 points or 1.11% to 27,183.64.

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