Benchmarks continue to trade lower in noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower in noon session after the European Central Bank hinted at additional stimulus, but refrained from talking about the ongoing quantitative easing program scheduled to end in March. Sentiments also remained down-beat as US Trade Representative Michael Froman underlining the need to improve the business environment in India in order to ensure greater investment inflow, stating that certain areas in the Indian economy like retail and financial services needed further opening up. Further, losses in the Consumer Durables, Metal, Banking, Oil & Gas and PSU stocks dampened the mood. Depreciation in Indian rupee too weighed down sentiments, the rupee was trading lower by 9 paise at 66.90 against the dollar at this point of time on sustained foreign fund outflows amid increased demand for the US currency from importers. In scrip specific development, Biotech major Biocon rose 2 percent on posting 52 percent growth in quarterly net profit, led by growth in its small molecules, biologics and research services. 

On the global front, the Asian markets were trading mostly in red as the odds of an interest-rate rise in the U.S. increased again, while oil prices gave up recent gains. Back home, the BSE Sensex is currently trading at 27997.26, down by 132.58 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 27957.92 and 28163.41. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.13%, while Small cap index was up by 0.10%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 0.92%, FMCG up by 0.43%, IT up by 0.29% and TECK up by 0.13%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.29%, Metal down by 1.01%, Bankex down by 0.51%, Oil & Gas down by 0.36% and PSU down by 0.31% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.73%, GAIL India up by 0.90%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.89%, TCS up by 0.56% and ITC up by 0.50%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 3.13%, Reliance Industries down by 2.37%, Axis Bank down by 2.33%, HDFC down by 1.59% and Asian Paints down by 1.55% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Telecom firms have paid over Rs 32,400 crore to government as upfront payment for spectrum that was sold in the recently-held auction. The Department of Telecom has said that total upfront payment received by the government for spectrum auction this year is higher as compared to the last year.

DoT had set the deadline of October 20 for depositing the upfront payments for spectrum bought by operators in the auction that ended on October 6.  Vodafone and Tata Teleservices had made payments of Rs 10,139 crore and Rs 2,309 crore, respectively, while five more operators, including Airtel and Reliance Jio, deposited a total of Rs 19,981 crore with DoT, taking total payments to Rs 32,400 crore so far.

The operators were required to pay 50 per cent of the bid amount upfront for spectrum bought in 1800 Mhz, 2100 Mhz, 2300 Mhz, and 2500 Mhz bands, and 25 per cent of the bid amount in the case of spectrum in bands up to 1Ghz. In all, seven operators including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Reliance Jio, Aircel, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices had placed bids of Rs 65,789 crore for 964.80 MHz of spectrum out of 2,354.55 MHz across seven bands put on offer.  At the base price, total spectrum put on sale was worth Rs 5.6 lakh crore. However, the upfront payments are short of the government's target of getting Rs 64,000 crore from auction this fiscal.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 8664.30, down by 35.10 points or 0.40% after trading in a range of 8652.05 and 8709.10. There were 17 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Dr. Reddys Lab up by 1.87%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.76%, HCL Tech. up by 1.73%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.89% and Tata Power up by 0.79%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 3.36%, Axis Bank down by 2.54%, Reliance Industries down by 2.23%, Hindalco down by 2.16% and Ambuja Cement down by 1.88% were the top losers.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 decreased 50.91 points or 0.3% to 17,184.59, Taiwan Weighted decreased 10.67 points or 0.11% to 9,306.57, KOSPI Index decreased 7.6 points or 0.37% to 2,033.00, Jakarta Composite decreased 7.08 points or 0.13% to 5,396.61 and Shanghai Composite decreased 2.82 points or 0.09% to 3,081.64. On the other hand, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 2.64 points or 0.16% to 1,669.82.

Hong Kong stock exchange was closed for the trade due to issuance of Typhoon Signal.