Local equities hold on to their early gains

Local equity markets continued to trade with healthy gains in the morning trades, on account of sustained foreign fund inflow. Power, Capital Goods and BANKEX have elevated with gains on their respective front line stocks. Sentiments remained positive with Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur’s statement Indian economy is structurally and fundamentally very strong and the current slowdown, which is cyclical in nature. He further added Narendra Modi-led government has taken several steps to boost the Indian economy. Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued to be net buyers in the capital market, infusing Rs 895.63 on October 14, while domestic institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 425.15 crore. However, gains remain capped with former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan’s statement that he expressed concern over India's fiscal deficit figures, stating that it is the likely reason behind the slowdown in Indian economy. He also criticised the government over its populist decision-making which failed to focus on economic growth.

On the global front, Asian stocks were trading mixed, as investors were cautious as they waited for more details about last week’s agreement for a partial trade deal between the US and China. Back on the domestic turf, on the sectoral front, telecom stock were in focus as Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad assured the industry of ‘reforms’ in spectrum pricing, and said auctions will take place in the current financial year, even as telecom giants warned that high pricing could further hit the debt-ridden sector and impact 5G deployments.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38394.80, up by 180.33 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 38238.27 and 38443.34. There were 25 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.29%, while Small cap index was up by 0.04%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 0.97%, Capital Goods up by 0.89%, BANKEX up by 0.77%, Auto up by 0.65% and FMCG was up by 0.65%, while Telecom down by 1.53%, Metal down by 1.14%, TECK down by 0.65%, IT down by 0.51% and Basic Materials was down by 0.46% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Hindustan Unilever up by 1.55%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.47%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.42%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.15% and ITC was up by 1.13%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 2.00%, Tata Motors down by 1.88%, Vedanta down by 1.83%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.73% and Tata Motors - DVR was down by 1.33% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur has said India's economy is structurally and fundamentally very strong and the current slowdown, which is cyclical in nature, will not affect it much. He mentioned said Narendra Modi-led government has taken several steps to boost the Indian economy.

He further exuded confidence that India would achieve the target of becoming $5 trillion economy by 2024-25. He stated that government has taken each such step which will boost the economy. Nobody could ever have imagined that the corporate tax rate will be slashed. Modi government did that in order to attract more investments into India.

He added, currently, India has become an attractive investment destination in the world. When more investment takes place, the economy will expand and it will also boost employment generation. Besides, India’s economy had expanded at its slowest pace in over five years for the first quarter of fiscal year 2019-2020. The gross domestic product (GDP) growth rose just 5% for the quarter ended June 2019, in a development that reinforces concerns over a slowing down of the Indian economy.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11394.40, up by 53.25 points or 0.47% after trading in a range of 11342.10 and 11399.85. There were 38 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Eicher Motors up by 2.80%, Indian Oil Corporation up by 2.04%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.54%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.41% and Kotak Mahindra Bank was up by 1.36%. On the flip side, JSW Steel down by 2.98%, Infosys down by 2.11%, Tata Motors down by 1.88%, Vedanta down by 1.86% and Bharti Airtel was down by 1.75% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Hang Seng decreased 25.48 points or 0.1% to 26,496.37, Shanghai Composite declined 15.98 points or 0.53% to 2,991.90, Jakarta Composite lost 1.90 points or 0.03% to 6,124.98 and Straits Times was down by 1.27 points or 0.04% to 3,123.18.

On the other side, KOSPI rose 1.86 points or 0.09% to 2,069.26, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 27.24 points or 0.25% to 11,094.19 and Nikkei 225 was up by 398.34 points or 1.83% to 22,197.21.