After opening the day in the green, share markets in India witnessed volatile trading activity throughout the day and ended the day on a negative note with a positive bias. Sectoral indices traded mixed, with stocks in the energy sector and stocks in the consumer durables sector, leading the losses.
At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 179 points (down 0.5%) and the NSE Nifty closed down by 82 points (down 0.8%). The BSE Mid Cap index ended the day down 1.6%, while the BSE Small Cap index ended the day down by 1.5%.
The rupee was trading at Rs 68.76 against the US$ in the afternoon session. Oil prices were trading at US$ 77.91 at the time of writing.
Asian stock markets finished mixed. As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng was up by 0.5% and the Shanghai Composite was down by 0.9%. The Nikkei 225 was down by 0.1%. Meanwhile, European markets, too were trading on a mixed note. The FTSE 100 was up by 0.1%. The DAX, was down by 0.8% while the CAC 40 was down by 0.3%
In news from stocks in the auto sector. Tata Motors share price and Mahindra & Mahindra share price were in focus today as electric vehicles (EV) delivered by the companies face rejections from government employees.
Senior government officials have refused to use electric cars made by the companies due to poor performance and low mileage.
In less than a year after state-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) floated a tender for 10,000 electric cars amid much fanfare, India’s EV growth story seems to be headed in a wrong direction.
A reason for this could be the smaller battery sizes in these vehicles. Both models have 17 kilowatts (kW) battery packs, while the global standard is 27-35kW. Notably, both the Tata and M&M models failed to run even 80-82km on a single charge within city limits.
Reportedly both companies are working on revised versions for further deployment.
