Indian share markets finished in deep red today, breaking a four day positive streak. At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex closed lower by 363 points and the NSE Nifty finished lower by 117 points. The S&P BSE Mid Cap finished down by 0.9% while & S&P BSE Small Cap too finished lower by 1.1%.

Asian stock markets finished mixed as of the most recent closing prices. The Shanghai Composite was flat and the Hang Seng fell 0.4%. The Nikkei 225 finished lower by 0.5%. Meanwhile, European markets are lower today as French and German shares fall. The French CAC 40 is off 1.3% while the German DAX is down 1.7%.

The rupee was trading at Rs 64.02 against the US$ in the afternoon session. Oil prices were trading at US$ 46.48 at the time of writing.

NTPC Ltd share price fell 3.4% after the government said it will sell a 5% stake in top power producer NTPC Ltd through a stock market auction, with a greenshoe option to sell another 5% in a deal that could raise up to US$2.2 billion.

Domestic rating agency Care Ratings, in its latest report has projected acceleration in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth to 6.5% in the first quarter (April-June) of fiscal year 2017-18 over the last year, up from the 6.1% in the preceding quarter. It said that this growth is contingent on realisation of gross value added (GVA) growth of 6.3%.

The rating agency in its report has stated that agriculture is expected to grow at 3.5-4% during the reporting quarter, largely due to residual output of the Rabi or the winter crop harvest. It said that the value addition in manufacturing will come between 4.5% and 5%, and added that the index of industrial production is at a positive 1.25% for the same period. It also said electricity growth will be 7%, while mining will be up to 3%. Growth of trade, hotels and transport will be around 7% with prospective GST impacting services to a limited extent.

As per the report, the fastest growing segment will be public administration and defence which is expected to grow 12%, on the back of front-loading of spending by the government wherein 80% of the budgeted fiscal space has already been exhausted.