Benchmarks turn negative

Local equity benchmarks erased all of their initial gains in the early noon session to trade in negative zone amid escalating trade tensions between the US and China, and heavy selling by foreign portfolio investors. Selling in frontline blue-chip stocks such Reliance Industries, Indusind Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Coal India too weighed down sentiment, while buying in Infosys, SBI, Tata Motors and TCS minimizing losses up to certain level. Anxiety remained on the street with private report stating that high oil prices are hurting consumers and could also have adverse implications for producers. Major emerging Asian economies such as India and Indonesia have been hit hard this year by rising crude oil prices. Sentiment turned negative with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) data showing that Indian companies’ investment in their overseas ventures fell by 47% to $1.54 billion in September 2018. Indian companies had invested $2.91 billion in their joint ventures (JVs) and wholly-owned subsidiaries (WoS) abroad during September 2017.

On the global front, Asian market were trading mostly in green, with some of the markets recovering from early losses following the negative cues overnight from Wall Street. Wall Street peers were hurt by fresh worries about the US-China trade war and were on track for their biggest October decline since the 2008 financial crisis.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 34002.42, down by 64.98 points or 0.19% after trading in a range of 33931.47 and 34176.36. There were 15 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.17%, while Small cap index was up by 1.06%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.61%, TECK up by 1.60%, Telecom up by 1.29%, Industrials up by 0.83% and Auto was up by 0.79%, while Energy down by 1.91%, Oil & Gas down by 0.75%, Metal down by 0.30%, FMCG down by 0.23% and Power was down by 0.20% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 2.59%, SBI up by 2.28%, Tata Motors up by 1.80%, Yes Bank up by 1.74% and TCS was up by 1.51%. On the flip side, Reliance Industries down by 2.25%, Indusind Bank down by 2.00%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.67%, HDFC down by 1.54% and Coal India was down by 1.52% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State (MoS) for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha has urged Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to bring aviation turbine fuel (ATF) under the purview of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. However, he said that the final call would be taken by the GST Council. He pointed out that that inclusion of ATF under new tax regime will give relief to airline players who facing financial woes at present.

The minister further said that despite being world’s fastest growing domestic aviation market, local carriers have been facing tough business conditions, especially with the rupee's depreciation and surging oil prices. He also said that as players look to woo more passengers with cheap fares, airlines have not been fully able to increase ticket prices. He indicated that ATF constitutes approximately 35-40 percent of operational cost of an airline in India.

The meeting was also attended by Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia and Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey. The meeting is called to discuss ways to lower input costs for airlines. When the one-nation-one-tax regime of GST was implemented in July last year, five commodities -- crude oil, natural gas, petrol, diesel, and ATF were kept out of its purview for the time being.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 10235.45, down by 15.40 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 10206.30 and 10285.10. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were GAIL India up by 3.52%, Infosys up by 2.40%, SBI up by 2.37%, Grasim Industries up by 2.26% and Tata Motors was up by 1.80%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 3.48%, Reliance Industries down by 2.28%, Indusind Bank down by 2.11%, HPCL down by 1.65% and Kotak Mahindra Bank was down by 1.62% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading in mostly in green, Nikkei 225 jumped 276.25 points or 1.29% to 21,426.05, Taiwan Weighted surged 9.79 points or 0.1% to 9,526.11, Jakarta Composite increased 28.20 points or 0.49% to 5,782.81, KOSPI rose 26.59 points or 1.31% to 2,022.64 and Shanghai Composite was up by 34.03 points or 1.32% to 2,576.13.

On the other hand; Hang Seng fell 44.64 points or 0.18% to 24,767.40 and Straits Times was down by 11.29 points or 0.38% to 2,970.2.