Post Session: Quick Review

Monday’s session turned out to be a choppy day of trade for Indian equity markets with frontline gauges ending the session with marginal losses, as weak global cues especially lower Asian market and volatility in the Indian rupee dampened investors’ sentiments. Markets made a pessimistic start and traded slightly in red, as traders remained worried on a private report stating that overseas investors pulled out a massive Rs 38,900 crore (over $5 billion) from the capital markets in October, the steepest outflow in nearly two years, on rising crude oil prices, depreciating rupee and worsening current account deficit. With this, the total outflow from the capital markets (equity and debt together) has reached over Rs 1 lakh crore so far this year. Some concerns also came with another private report saying with global crude prices remaining elevated, the rupee is likely to be under pressure, and may touch the 76 levels against the US currency over the next three months. Selling further crept in with former RBI governor and top economist Raghuram Rajan’s statement that cross-border capital flows have been a source of financial fragility and he underscored that countries should see how best they can benefit from cross-border flows, without incurring the costs.

However, key indices gave up most of their losses in last leg of trade and came off their intraday low points, due to some buying witnessed in Realty and Basic Materials stocks. Traders also found some support with a monthly survey indicating that the country's services sector in October expanded at the quickest pace since July, driven by significant increase in new business orders, which in turn led to robust workforce expansion. The seasonally adjusted Nikkei India Services Business Activity Index rose to 52.2 in October, from 50.9 in September. Traders were taking note of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that he has announced measures for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) will add strength to the sector. He also stated that bigger markets and better opportunities for the MSMEs was a ‘win-win’ situation.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly lower on Monday, amid trade concerns after White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow downplayed the potential for a quick trade deal between the US and China. European markets were trading in green. Back home, most of PSU banking stocks went up on reports that the Finance Ministry is likely to finalise the second round of capital infusion for public sector banks (PSBs) towards the end of this month or by the end of the first half of next month, taking into account the latest quarter's performance.

The BSE Sensex ended at 34969.51, down by 42.14 points or 0.12% after trading in a range of 34811.60 and 35123.41. There were 14 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.44%, while Small cap index was down by 0.34%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.94%, Basic Materials up by 0.48%, Energy up by 0.24%, Metal up by 0.24% and Bankex up by 0.14%, while Power down by 1.53%, Oil & Gas down by 1.28%, Utilities down by 0.95%, Healthcare down by 0.72% and Consumer Durables down by 0.51% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 3.57%, Axis Bank up by 2.25%, Wipro up by 1.60%, Reliance Industries up by 1.48% and Bajaj Auto up by 1.01%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 3.25%, NTPC down by 2.79%, Power Grid down by 2.11%, Adani Ports &SEZ down by 1.51% and ONGC down by 1.37% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, expressing optimism over growth of Indian economy, the NITI Aayog’s chief executive officer Amitabh Kant said that if the women workforce increases to 48% from the 24% present, the country can add an additional $700 billion to its economy. He added that for this, attention should be on women’s health and education. He also said that India can grow at a rate of 9% to 10% only if there is gender parity.

Elaborating further he said only 24% of the women in the country work, while the percentage is 48 across the world. In order to achieve this, men have to push women into employment. He said there is a need to create jobs for women for which their education and nutrition, especially in rural areas and eastern parts of the country, were imperative.

Talking about challenges India faces to achieve growth, Kant said creation of a world-class infrastructure like in China is a challenge to India where there is a mismatch between demand and supply. He also said that the government should take up greenfield infrastructure projects on roads and airports and allow private sector for operations and maintenance.

The CNX Nifty ended at 10528.20, down by 24.80 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 10477.00 and 10558.80. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI up by 3.73%, UPL up by 2.13%, Axis Bank up by 2.04%, Wipro up by 1.74% and HCL Tech up by 1.68%. (Provisional)

On the flip side, Cipla down by 7.35%, Indian Oil down by 5.23%, Indiabulls Housing Finance down by 4.35%, Indusind Bank down by 3.74% and BPCL down by 3.72% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 2.22 points or 0.03% to 7,096.34, France’s CAC was up by 1.10 points or 0.02% to 5,103.23 and Germany’s DAX increased 3.82 points or 0.03% to 11,522.81.

Asian markets ended mostly lower on Monday as hopes of an imminent US-China trade deal faded and investors looked ahead to the US mid-term elections as well as the FOMC meeting for directional cues. Chinese shares ended lower despite President Xi Jinping praising globalization and China's commitment to free trade. On the data front, China's private sector expanded at the weakest pace in more than two years in October with both services and manufacturing noting weaker performances, survey results from IHS Markit showed today. The Caixin composite output index fell to a 28-month low of 50.5 from 52.1 in September. Further, Japanese shares fell sharply in thin trading as caution set in ahead of US mid-term elections.