Markets closed in Red; Sensex falls 135 points & Nifty trades at 15,709

Domestic equity barometers ended with minor cuts after a volatile session on Wednesday, July 28, 2021. The S&P BSE Sensex fell 135.05 points or 0.26 per cent to 52,443.71. The Nifty 50 index lost 37.05 points or 0.24 per cent to 15,709.40. The Nifty Bank index closed 264.55 points or 0.76 per cent lower at 34,532.90.

In the broader markets, BSE Midcap ended unchanged while the BSE SmallCap index underperformed the headline indices and slipped 0.45 per cent.

Sellers outnumbered the buyers. On the BSE, 1439 shares rose and 1765 shares fell. On the Nifty 50 index on NSE, 23 shares rose and 27 shares fell. The top five gainers on Nifty are Bharti Airtel (up 5.04 per cent), Tata Steel (up 2.81 per cent), SBI Life (up 2.16 per cent), Divi's Laboratories (up 2.05 per cent) and IndusInd Bank (up 1.76 per cent). The top five losers were Kotak Bank (down 2.59 per cent), Dr Reddy's (down 2.55 per cent), Tata Motors (down 2.20 per cent), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 2.09 per cent) and Cipla (down 2.09 per cent).

COVID-19 update

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide were at 19,53,32,691 with 41,77,436 deaths. India reported 3,99,436 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 4,22,022 deaths while 3,06,63,147 patients have been discharged, data showed.

Forecast of India's GDP

International Monetary Fund has projected India's growth rate at 9.5 per cent for the current fiscal year. For the next Financial Year 2022-23, IMF expects economic growth of 8.5 per cent, larger than the 6.9 per cent it had projected in April.

Forecast for the current year 2021-22 is lower than the 12.5 per cent growth in GDP that the IMF had projected in April before the second wave of COVID-19 took a grip. In its latest World Economic Outlook, IMF said, growth prospects in India have been downgraded following the severe second COVID wave during March-May and expected slow recovery in confidence from that setback.

According to Care Ratings, India's GDP growth is likely to be 8.8-9 per cent in the current financial year, driven by agriculture and industry sectors. The country's economy had contracted by 7.3 per cent in FY21. The agency said the outlook for the Indian economy on almost all counts in FY22 would look seemingly better than FY21 on account of the negative base effect. The second wave of the pandemic has set back economic recovery in India, the IMF said, as it cut the country's growth forecast for the ongoing financial year. India's GDP is estimated to grow by 9.5 per cent in FY22 compared to the 12.5 per cent forecast in April 2021, according to the world economic outlook published by the IMF on Tuesday.