Markets continue to trade lower in early noon session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in red in early noon session on the back of persistent selling by participants following weaker-than-expected earnings by some companies and a weak trend at other Asian markets after weak Chinese manufacturing data for October. Depreciation in the rupee too dampened the sentiments. The rupee fell by 29 paise to 65.45 against the dollar in early trade on sustained foreign fund outflows amid increased demand for the US currency from importers. Some buying was seen in Realty, Consumer Durables and Auto stocks, while selling was witnessed in Capital Goods, Metal, PSU, Power and IT sector stocks. At present, both sensex and Nifty below the crucial 26,500 and 8,050 levels, respectively.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after lacklustre economic data from the U.S. and China. Back home, in scrip specific development, share of Bajaj Auto was trading down by 4.65% after the company reported 9 per cent fall in sales for the month of October 2015 at 3,52,822 units, as compared to 3,86,017 units sold in October 2014. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra was trading up by over 3.21% after automaker reported 20% year on year (YoY) growth in total sales of 51,383 units in the month of October 2015. It had sold 42,780 units in the same month year ago.

The market breadth on BSE was negative, out of 2282 stocks traded, 824 stocks advanced, while 1367 stocks declined on the BSE.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 26492.84, down by 163.99 points or 0.62% after trading in a range of 26459.13 and 26824.30. There were 10 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.26%, while Small cap index lost 0.46%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.53%, Consumer Durables up by 0.31% and Auto up by 0.29%, while Capital Goods down by 1.51%, Metal down by 1.24%, PSU down by 0.86%, Power down by 0.78% and IT down by 0.59% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.10%, Tata Motors up by 1.31%, ICICI Bank up by 0.90%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.84% and Dr. Reddys Lab up by 0.44%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 4.65%, Lupin down by 2.86%, Hindalco down by 2.86%, Tata Steel down by 2.53% and Larsen & Toubro down by 2.24% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have slashed price of petrol by 50 paise per litre while keeping the rate of diesel unchanged. The new rates announced by the oil marketing companies (OMCs) are effective from November 1, 2015. Following the change, petrol will cost Rs 60.70 per litre in Delhi as against Rs 61.20 per litre, while diesel will cost Rs 45.90 per litre.

Petrol price was last revised on September 1 where it was cut by Rs 2 per litre while diesel prices were hiked by 95 paise per litre on October 15 and by 50 paise per litre on October 1.

With the current level of international product prices and the rupee-dollar exchange rate, Oil Marketing companies went ahead and further reduced fuel prices. PSU oil marketing companies, Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp revise petrol and diesel prices on 1st and 16th of every month based on average imported cost and rupee-dollar exchange rates in the previous fortnight.

The oil companies have said that the movement of prices in the international oil market and INR-USD exchange rate shall continue to be monitored closely and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8021.90, down by 43.90 points or 0.54% after trading in a range of 8010.55 and 8060.65. There were 16 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.20%, Tata Motors up by 1.19%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.07%, ICICI Bank up by 0.97% and Zee Entertainment up by 0.92%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 4.67%, Lupin down by 3.02%, Hindalco down by 2.86%, Tata Steel down by 2.43% and Larsen & Toubro down by 2.34% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 412.42 points or 2.16% to 18,670.68, Hang Seng decreased 164.54 points or 0.73% to 22,475.50, Shanghai Composite decreased 7.81 points or 0.23% to 3,374.75, Jakarta Composite decreased 6.3 points or 0.14% to 4,448.88 and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI decreased 2.56 points or 0.15% to 1,663.15, while KOSPI Index increased 5.76 points or 0.28% to 2,035.23 and Taiwan Weighted increased 60.46 points or 0.71% to 8,614.77.