Sensex, Nifty continue lackluster trade in late morning session

Key Indian benchmarks continued to trade lackluster in late morning session, however managed to trade marginally in green. Sentiments were optimistic with the private report stating that the Indian economy is expected to see a rebound in the July-September quarter of this year with a GVA growth rate of 6.3 percent. Some support also came with Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia’s statement that the policymakers are considering steps to ease the compliance burden related to the goods and services tax (GST) on small businesses and to make product classification for taxation less complicated. Besides, firm trend in Asian markets along with higher buying witnessed in Telecom, Realty and TECK stocks, too added support to the indices. However, the upside remained capped amid selling witnessed mainly in Auto, Healthcare and FMCG stocks.

On the sectoral front, shares of metal companies were trading higher with the report that Domestic crude steel production rose by 6.8 per cent to 8.39 million tonnes (mt) in September 2017 compared to 7.86 mt in the same month last year.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, led by Japanese Nikkei which surged over a per cent, as the dollar spiked to more than three-month highs against the yen following a snap election in Japan on Sunday. Back home, in scrip specific development, Inox Leisure traded higher after the company commenced the commercial operations of video cinema, taken on license basis, and located at Atrial Mall, Dr. Annie Besant Road, WorIi in Mumbai with effect from October 21, 2017. The said video cinema has 5 Screens and 167 seats. Inox is now present in 58 cities with 120 Multiplexes, 481 screens and a total seating capacity of 1,19,674 seats across India.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 32426.72, up by 36.76 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 32393.22 and 32614.89. There were 16 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.41%, while Small cap index was up by 0.06%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.63%, Realty up by 1.27%, TECK up by 1.04%, IT up by 0.96% and Energy up by 0.78%, while Auto down by 0.33%, Healthcare down by 0.27%, Consumer Disc down by 0.12% and FMCG down by 0.12% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 3.05%, ICICI Bank up by 1.88%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.41%, Coal India up by 1.33% and Infosys up by 1.33%. On the flip side, Tata Motors - DVR down by 2.32%, Axis Bank down by 1.81%, Asian Paints down by 1.46%, Cipla down by 1.44% and HDFC down by 1.32% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari has said that a master plan for 142 expansion projects worth more than Rs 90,000 crore has been finalised to modernise 12 major ports and develop new harbours. He also pointed out that these top ports, under the administrative control of the Centre, recorded a growth rate of 3.24 percent in cargo to 326.4 million tonne (MT) during April-September 2017 as against 316.1 MT in the corresponding period last year.

The minister further said that a total of 142 expansion projects have been identified for these ports and timely delivery of projects will give the much needed boost to the economy. He also mentioned that out of 142 identified expansion projects, 57 projects are under implementation and one has been completed. According to the government, the April-September figures of the cargo at 12 major ports show that the highest growth was registered by Cochin Port (19.62 percent), followed by Kolkata (including Haldia), New Mangalore, Paradip with a growth of about 12 percent each.

India has 12 major ports, namely Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, V O Chidambaranar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia), which handle approximately 61 per cent of the country's total cargo traffic.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10164.35, up by 17.80 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 10156.35 and 10224.15. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel up by 3.10%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.53%, Ambuja Cement up by 1.99%, ICICI Bank up by 1.96% and HCL Tech. up by 1.92%. On the flip side, Bharti Infratel down by 3.11%, Axis Bank down by 1.79%, UPL down by 1.60%, Eicher Motors down by 1.49% and Asian Paints down by 1.47% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Shanghai Composite increased 2.36 points or 0.07% to 3,381.00, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI increased 2.86 points or 0.16% to 1,743.51, Taiwan Weighted increased 6.33 points or 0.06% to 10,735.21, Jakarta Composite increased 23.12 points or 0.39% to 5,952.67 and Nikkei 225 increased 247.59 points or 1.15% to 21,705.23.

On the flip side, Hang Seng decreased 171.12 points or 0.6% to 28,316.12 and KOSPI Index decreased 0.78 points or 0.03% to 2,488.76.