Indian equity benchmarks made slightly negative start on Wednesday tracking weakness across global markets. Domestic indices are struggling for direction as investors looked ahead to earnings of IT majors as well as key economic indicators like retail inflation and factory production for directional cues. Sensex and Nifty are trading flat in early deals amid foreign fund outflows. Provisional data from the NSE showed that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 990.90 crore on January 9. Traders were concerned with a private report that India's retail inflation likely edged up in December on higher food prices but stayed within the Reserve Bank of India's target range for a fourth consecutive month. However, downside remained capped as foreign brokerage report stated that the Indian economy is likely to grow at 6.2 per cent in the next fiscal, mainly due to the favourable combination of neutral policy settings, positive credit momentum, and manageable macros amid a 15-year high household debt levels. 

Most of the Asian markets are trading lower, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight, as traders look to book some profits after the recent strength in the markets and amid lingering uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates. They also seemed reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of key US inflation data later in the week.

Back home, insurance industry stocks are in focus with report that the life insurance industry’s new business premium increased by 43.76 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in December 2023, helped by state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and private insurers. In stock specific development, Vedanta declined as Moody's Investors Service downgraded rating on the senior unsecured bonds issued by the company.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 71402.00, up by 15.79 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 71110.98 and 71454.74. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.36%, while Small cap index was up by 0.04%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 0.70%, IT up by 0.27%, TECK up by 0.23%, Healthcare up by 0.15% and Telecom up by 0.09%, while Oil & Gas down by 1.20%, Realty down by 1.12%, PSU down by 1.02%, Energy down by 0.83% and Metal down by 0.81% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HCL Technologies up by 1.53%, Nestle up by 0.92%, Titan Company up by 0.79%, TCS up by 0.52% and Indusind Bank up by 0.50%. On the flip side, NTPC down by 1.74%, Axis Bank down by 0.69%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.68%, Tata Steel down by 0.64% and Bajaj Finserv down by 0.63% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the World Bank in its Global Economic Prospects report has retained India’s economic growth forecast at 6.3% for the current financial year (FY2023-24 -- April 2023 to March 2024). It said India is anticipated to maintain the fastest growth rate among the world’s largest economies, but its post-pandemic recovery is expected to slow. It added that growth is then expected to recover gradually, edging up to 6.4% in FY2024-25 and 6.5 percent in FY2025-26. 

It said investment is envisaged to decelerate marginally but remain robust, supported by higher public investment and improved corporate balance sheets, including in the banking sector. Private consumption growth is likely to taper off, as the post-pandemic pent-up demand diminishes and persistent high food price inflation is likely to constrain spending, particularly among low income households. Meanwhile, government consumption is expected to grow slowly, in line with the central government’s efforts to lower the share of current spending. It further said in India, government revenues are expected to gain from solid corporate profits, and current expenditures are likely to decrease with the conclusion of pandemic-related measures. Interest payments are projected to be large in countries with elevated debt levels, including India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

However, the Bank warned that global growth in 2024 is set to slow for a third year in a row, in what could delay poverty reduction and exacerbate debt levels in many developing countries. Global GDP is likely to grow 2.4% in 2024, it said. That compares to 2.6% in 2023, 3% in 2022 and 6.2% in 2021 when there was a rebound as the pandemic ended. That would make growth weaker in the 2020-2024 period than during the years surrounding the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, the late 1990s Asian financial crisis and downturns in the early 2000s.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 21549.05, up by 4.20 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 21448.65 and 21564.80. There were 21 stocks advancing against 29 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI Life Insurance up by 2.82%, HCL Technologies up by 1.71%, Adani Enterprises up by 1.67%, Cipla up by 1.52% and Nestle up by 1.12%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 2.51%, ONGC down by 2.22%, NTPC down by 1.74%, Eicher Motors down by 1.34% and Coal India down by 1.05% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 67.35 points or 0.42% to 16,122.67, Taiwan Weighted lost 43.82 points or 0.25% to 17,491.67, Straits Times fell 32.02 points or 1% to 3,165.94, KOSPI dropped 16.26 points or 0.63% to 2,544.98 and Shanghai Composite weakened 6.07 points or 0.21% to 2,887.18. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 surged 713.3 points or 2.11% to 34,476.48 and Jakarta Composite was up by 40.9 points or 0.57% to 7,241.10.