Taking out Nyay Yatra as govt didn’t give us chance to raise issues in Parliament, says Kharge Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday said his party is taking out the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra as the government did not give it a chance to raise issues in Parliament. The Rahul Gandhi-led Manipur-to-Maharashtra yatra, which will begin on January 14, will cover 6,713 km and its participants will travel on buses and foot. “The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will focus on basic social, political and economic issues of the country,” Kharge told a press conference here. He added that INDIA bloc leaders and members of the civil society have also been invited to join the march along its route. The Congress had earlier said that the east-to-west Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra would prove to be as impactful and transformative as the earlier south-to-north Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kharge said unfortunate incidents have taken place in Manipur and the prime minister who speaks everywhere and does photo sessions has not visited the state. He also attacked the BJP government at the Centre, alleging that it is blatantly misusing agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department to threaten opposition leaders. On whether he would attend the January 22 Ram temple consecration ceremony, Kharge said he has got an invite for the ceremony and will decide on it very soon. Referring to the new labour laws and criminal laws, the Congress chief said the legislation that have been brought by the government show signs of dictatorship.
However, he believes that the impact on the Indian market is going to be temporary since there could be some short-term impact on flows into Indian equity markets. But since the Indian economy is on a strong wicket and will continue to remain resilient.
“Improved fiscal situation, controlled current deficit, stable interest scenario combined with good corporate earnings should lead to limited impact on the Indian bond market and equity market too,” he added.
The midcap and smallcap indices took a bigger knock with the BSE MidCap fell 2.51%, while BSE SmallCap index dived 4.18%. According to Amnish Aggarwal, head, research, Prabhudas Lilladher, the valuations were already high and some correction was expected. “If the situation sustains as it is then further correction can’t be ruled out,” Aggarwal said.
Telecommunication and industrials indices were the top laggards with BSE Telecommunication declining 3.82%, followed by BSE Industrials falling 3.26%. JSW Steel (-2.99%), Tata Steel (-2.52%) and Tata Consultancy Services (-2.44%) were the top losers of Sensex.
Surprisingly, both foreign portfolio investors and domestic institutional investors were net buyers today. While, FPIs net bought shares worth Rs 252.25 crore, DIIs have purchased shares worth Rs 1,111.84 crore, as per provisional data from exchanges.
Calling this a “normal phenomena” Pankaj Pandey, head, research, ICICI Direct said, “I will not really give too much weight to a single day buying figure. Amid concerns of elevated interest rate and geopolitical tensions, in a typical market cycle, 8-10% correction is possible at any point in time.”
The brunt of geopolitical conflict, elevated interest rates and rising crude oil prices was also felt by other Asian- Pacific markets. Jakarta Composite Index lost 1.57% followed by Shanghai Composite Index and PSEi, which fell 1.47% and 0.89%, respectively. Nikkei and KOSPI declined 0.83% and 0.76%.