Markets surrender early gains; still hang on to green

Local equity markets surrendering most portion of their gains, were just about hanging into positive territory, with slender gains of around one tenth of a percent which kept both Sensex and Nifty above psychologically crucial 27,850 and 8,300 levels respectively. However, broader indices outperforming larger counter-parts were trading with gains in the range of 0.50%-0.75%. Dismal macro-economic data mainly played spook for the markets. On the macro-front, growth in India’s dominant service industry stalled last month as new orders came in at a weaker pace, with HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), compiled by Markit, falling to watershed’ 50’ mark, break-even point between growth and contraction, in October from September’s 51.6.

On the global front, Asian shares were lower on Wednesday following a trend from Wall Street, where shares were dragged down by falling oil prices. Crude oil prices fell to multi-year lows on news top oil exporter Saudi Arabia had unexpectedly cut its US sales prices. Besides, investor sentiment was impacted by news that growth in China's services sector fell to the lowest in three months in October, according to the HSBC/Markit private survey.

Closer home, much of the sectoral indices on BSE were trading into positive territory, nevertheless top performers were the stocks from banking, healthcare and Realty counters. While, the gains of SBI shares lifted banking index, rally of Sun Pharmaceuticals lifted pharma index. On the flip side, stocks from Metal, Oil & Gas and Power counters were the worst performers of the session. The overall market breadth on BSE was in the favour of advances which thumped declines in the ratio of 1578:1126; while 122 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27890.61, up by 30.23 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 27885.06 and 28006.60. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.50%, while Small cap index up by 0.85%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.27%, Realty up by 0.59%, Capital Goods up by 0.43%, FMCG up by 0.32% and Auto up by 0.21% while, Metal down by 2.35%, Oil & Gas down by 0.49%, Power down by 0.29%, PSU down by 0.17% and INFRA down by 0.14% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 2.34%, SBI up by 2.27%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 2.22%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.07% and ICICI Bank up by 1.01%. On the flip side, Sesa Sterlite down by 3.52%, Coal India down by 2.97%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.30%, Tata Steel down by 1.65% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.43% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India's domestic air traffic grew at a record pace of over 26% in September compared to the same month last year on account of market stimulation measures by the Indian carriers which continued to offer low  fares on the domestic sectors. The domestic air traffic grew by 7.6% in August, according to the data released by International Air Transport Association (IATA).

While, the agency attributed previous 7.6% growth to revived confidence over the new business supportive government, it highlighted that new found strength was mainly on account of low fares techniques adopted by Indian carriers.

Meanwhile, data furnished by the civil aviation ministry, showed that the domestic air passenger traffic increased by 27.82% in September to 58.22 lakh passengers up from 45.55 lakh ferried in the same month last year. According to data furnished by aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), on Y-o-Y basis there was an increase of over 7.55% in the passenger traffic, it highlighted.

Further, on international air travel, the IATA figures showed that Asia Pacific airlines reported a demand growth of 4.8% compared to a year ago. However, this growth was weaker than August. Nevertheless, overall global passenger traffic results for September showed demand growth of 5.3% over September last year, indicative of continuity of positive trend for passenger demand even though the performance was slightly below the August year-over-year rise of 6.3%.

Lastly, IATA highlighted that fall in oil prices was heartening development for industry, which spends a third of its operating budget on fuel, but its full impact would only be realized over time because of a time lag built into jet fuel pricing.

 The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8334.70, up by 10.55 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 8326.10 and 8363.95. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 2.29%, Axis Bank up by 2.29%, BPCL up by 2.27%, SBI up by 2.22% and Indusind Bank up by 2.15%. On the flip side, Cairn India down by 4.83%, NMDC down by 4.07%, Sesa Sterlite down by 3.91%, Jindal Steel & Power down by 3.11% and Coal India down by 2.70% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly lower; with Jakarta Composite Hang Seng declining by 135 points or 0.57% to 23,710.66; Taiwan Weighted sliding by 26.58 points or 0.3% to 8,962.60; Shanghai Composite shedding 7.74 points or 0.32% to 2,422.94; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI losing 5.38 points or 0.29% to 1,841.98 and KOSPI Index surrendering 3.76 points or 0.19% to 1,931.43. On the flip side,  Straits Times was trading higher by 5.49 points or 0.17% to 3,287.06 and  Nikkei 225 inching up by 74.85 points or 0.44% to 16,937.32