At 11:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, lost 73.33 points or 0.13% at 57,479.08. The Nifty 50 index declined 31.25 points or 0.18% at 17,100.65.
The Sensex hit record high of 57,918.71 while the Nifty scaled record high of 17,225.75 in early trade.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.13% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.07%.
The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1358 shares rose and 1614 shares fell. A total of 162 shares were unchanged.
COVID-19 Update:
Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 217,665,201 with 4,518,658 global deaths.
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India reported 378,181 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 439,020 deaths, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
India administered more than 1 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses yesterday. With the administration of 1,33,18,718 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage has surpassed the cumulative figure of 65.41 crore as per provisional reports till 7 am today.
The recovery of 33,964 patients in the last 24 hours has increased the cumulative tally of recovered patients (since the beginning of the pandemic) to 3,19,93,644. Consequently, India's recovery rate stands at 97.51%.
Economy:
India's gross domestic product (GDP) surged 20.1% in the April-June quarter of the current fiscal. The GDP logged a high growth amid the opening of the economy after the lockdown to arrest Covid-19 and low base effect as the economy witnessed a contraction of 24.4% in the first quarter of 2020-21 fiscal.
Briefing the media, Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian said the banking sector has now developed a cushion to withstand impending bad loans. He said inflation is expected to be in the 5 to 6% range going forward. Subramanian said India is poised for stronger growth from structural reforms, government CAPEX push and rapid inoculation. He said high-frequency indicators such as the Google mobility indicator shows activity has picked up, even grocery activity has picked up to pre-covid levels. Subramanian said MNREGA work requirement has declined in August. He said power consumption is indicating strong recovery as well.
Further, India's fiscal deficit for April-July period stood at Rs 3.21 lakh crore ($43.98 billion), which is 21.3% of the full fiscal's target. The deficit figures this fiscal appear much better than the previous financial year, when it soared to 103.1% of the estimate, mainly on account of a jump in expenditure to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the production of eight core industries rose by 9.4% in July against a 7.6% decline in the year-ago month. According to official data released on Tuesday showed that all sectors except crude oil registered an increase in output. The output of core sectors had registered a 7.6% decline in July 2020 due to COVID-19 related restrictions. On a month-on-month basis, output rose 5.4% in July after growing 1.5% in June.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Consumer Durables gained 1.52% to 25,231.85. The index has added 6% in five days.
Amber Enterprises India (up 4.11%), Voltas (up 4.05%), Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals (up 2.77%), Titan Company (up 0.92%) and Blue Star (up 0.22%) were the top gainers.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Zen Technologies jumped 13.44% to Rs 110.15 after the company said that its order book as on 1 September 2021 stood at Rs 402.6 crore, a surge of 110.13% as against an order book of Rs 191.6 crore on 30 June 2021.
Aptech rose 1.80% to Rs 309 after the company said its board approved the launch of online education on 16 September 2021.
Global Markets:
Asian stocks were trading higher on Wednesday. China's Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to 49.2 last month, from 50.3 in July, breaching the 50-mark that separates growth from contraction.
U.S. stocks ended slightly lower Tuesday as investors looked ahead to U.S. jobs data for August coming Friday, where they might find clues as to when the Federal Reserve may begin tapering its bond purchases which have helped to support markets during the pandemic.
The Conference Board said its closely followed index of consumer confidence slid to a six-month low at 113.8 this month from a revised 125.1 in July, reflecting concerns about the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
In other U.S. economic data, the Chicago purchasing managers index dropped to 66.8 in August from a previous reading of 73.4. And home prices rose 18.6% annually in June, up from a 16.8% increase in May, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index.
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