Sensex, Nifty trim gains

Indian equity benchmarks trimmed most of their gains in late afternoon session, despite positive cues from European markets. Heavy losses led by Healthcare and IT stocks along with losers like Bajaj Auto and Yes Bank, weighed on the sentiments. Domestic sentiments also got cautious with a report stating that Private Equity (PE) investments moderated to $14.60 billion during January-September period, owing to macroeconomic concerns, market volatility and valuations of companies. However, the markets managed to keep their heads in green, supported by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT)’s statement that India relaxed some restrictions on imports of petcoke for use as feedstock in some industries.

On the sectoral front, aviation stocks were trading mostly in green, aided by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s date report showing that the domestic air passenger count has gone up by 18.95% in the month of September 2018. As per the report, domestic airlines flew 113.98 lakh passengers in September 2018, as against 95.83 lakh passengers carried in the same month of last year. However, metal stocks came under pressure, after a study report indicated that lack of reciprocity in India’s existing free trade agreements (FTA), inverted duty structure, hidden subsidies in Asian economies like cheap electricity provision and non-tariff barriers in developed countries have hit India’s exports of refined.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green, despite Germany's producer prices rose at the fastest pace in a year in September. The figures from Destatis showed that producer prices grew 3.2% year-on-year in September, after rising 3.1% in the previous month. The street also overlooked reports that British factory orders dropped at the fastest pace in three years in the quarter to October as manufacturers remained worried about the possibility of a disorderly Brexit. The survey among 354 manufacturers showed that a net 6 percent reported a fall in new orders in the quarter to October, which was the weakest balance since October 2015. Asian markets were trading mixed. Back home, in scrip specific development, Karur Vysya Bank soared on reporting 10.69% rise in its net profit at Rs 83.74 crore for Q2FY19 as compared to Rs 75.65 crore for Q2FY18.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 33852.86, up by 5.63 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 33726.07 and 34300.97. There were 10 stocks advancing against 21 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 0.23%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.54%, Oil & Gas up by 2.42%, Realty up by 1.83%, Consumer Durables up by 1.09% and Capital Goods up by 0.85%, while Healthcare down by 0.80%, IT down by 0.70%, TECK down by 0.29%, Power down by 0.11% and Bankex down by 0.10% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 5.70%, Asian Paints up by 3.96%, Indusind Bank up by 2.82%, HDFC up by 2.24% and Hindustan Unilever up by 1.84%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 4.46%, Yes Bank down by 3.86%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 2.12%, Sun Pharma down by 1.70% and Tata Motors - DVR down by 1.53% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the domestic air passenger count has gone up by 18.95% in the month of September 2018. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data, domestic airlines flew 113.98 lakh passengers in September 2018, as against 95.83 lakh passengers carried in the same month of last year.

As per the report, the domestic air passenger count has gone up by 20.94% during the period of January-September 2018. Indian carriers carried 1027.93 lakh passengers during January-September 2018 as against 849.94 lakh during the corresponding period of previous year. Besides, in terms of passenger load factor (PLF), SpiceJet was leading among all with 93.2% PLF during the month of September 2018, followed by Go Air (90.6%), Jet Airways (84.9%), Vistara (84.9%) and JetLite (83.0%).

In terms of on-time performance (OTP), Go Air has taken lead from the rest with 90.4% of its flights arriving and departing as per schedule from four metro airports, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, followed by SpiceJet (89.1%) and IndiGo (87.6%). During September 2018, a total of 669 passenger related complaints had been received by the scheduled domestic airlines. The number of complaints per 10,000 passengers carried for the month of September 2018 has been around 0.59.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10174.05, up by 27.25 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 10126.70 and 10290.65. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finance up by 9.19%, HPCL up by 8.03%, IOC up by 6.62%, Bharti Airtel up by 6.37% and BPCL up by 5.40%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 4.66%, Yes Bank down by 3.82%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 2.49%, Grasim Industries down by 2.31% and Reliance Industries down by 1.89% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Nikkei 225 gained 80.40 points or 0.36% to 22,091.18, Straits Times added 4.83 points or 0.16% to 3,036.22 and Shanghai Composite increased 8.47 points or 0.33% to 2,603.30. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite lost 88.47 points or 1.55% to 5,709.42, Taiwan Weighted fell 15.80 points or 0.16% to 9,759.40, Hang Seng decreased 96.77 points or 0.38% to 25,249.78 and KOSPI was down by 8.52 points or 0.41% to 2,097.58.

All European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 added 19.02 points or 0.27% to 6,974.23, France’s CAC surged 19.94 points or 0.4% to 4,987.63 and Germany’s DAX was up by 12.17 points or 0.11% to 11,286.45.