Local equities continue lackluster trade

Local equity benchmarks continued to show lackluster trade in morning session, on account of profit booking by investors in few specific sectors such as IT and TECK. A level of pressure was seen on frontline stocks, especially Infosys, HCL Technologies and Tata Motors. Some concerns came with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement that the ongoing trade wars and protectionism have generated uncertainties and will ultimately impact the flow of capital, goods and services. However, upside remain capped with Trade Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that the broad contours of a trade deal with the United States have been worked out and suggested there could be an announcement soon. Besides, a report showed that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have infused a net sum of Rs 5,072 crore into the Indian capital markets in October so far amid the government's efforts to revive domestic demand.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, on growing optimism that China and the US will sign a partial trade deal next month. Back home, Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) reported that passenger vehicle (PV) retail sales dropped by 20.1% to 1,57,972 units in September 2019 as compared with 1,97,653 units in the corresponding month last year, as the onset of festival season and never-seen-before discounts failed to boost demand.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 39191.43, down by 106.95 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 39121.21 and 39426.47. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.55%, while Small cap index was up by 0.50%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.56%, Healthcare up by 1.17%, FMCG up by 1.03%, PSU up by 0.89% and Oil & Gas was up by 0.85%, while IT down by 5.19% and TECK was down by 4.35% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Yes Bank up by 8.27%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.01%, ITC up by 1.58%, ICICI Bank up by 1.53% and Hindustan Unilever was up by 1.46%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 13.08%, Tata Motors - DVR down by 3.75%, Tata Motors down by 3.66%, HCL Technologies down by 1.48% and Asian Paints was down by 0.90% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, talking about ongoing trade wars and protectionism, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said they have generated uncertainties and will ultimately impact the flow of capital, goods and services. She also called for 'concerted action' to mitigate the disruption on account of synchronous slowdown and to invoke the spirit of multilateralism for global growth.

She stressed that the increased trade integration, geopolitical uncertainties, and high accumulated debt levels necessitate strong global coordination. She added ‘we need not wait for the slowdown to become a crisis.’ Besides, she led the Indian delegation to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in which the deliberations centred on international taxation and 'Stablecoins', which are cryptocurrencies pegged to a stable asset.

The ministers and governors also took updates from the G20 deputies on quality infrastructure investment, debt sustainability, financing for universal health care and building effective country platforms, and from the Africa Advisory Group on the Compact with Africa initiative. On the discussions at the session regarding the work underway on developing a consensus solution on tax challenges arising from digitalisation, the finance minister stated that a unified approach to the nexus and profit allocation challenges was a promising one that merits serious attention. She said ‘a solution that is simple to implement, simple to administer and simple to comply with is needed.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11652.15, down by 9.70 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 11631.50 and 11714.35. There were 37 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Yes Bank up by 7.49%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.28%, Wipro up by 2.03%, BPCL up by 1.90% and Grasim Industries was up by 1.84%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 13.06%, Tata Motors down by 3.95%, HCL Technologies down by 1.49%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.00% and Asian Paints was down by 0.91% were the top losers.

Asian markets trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted strengthened 63.11 points or 0.56% to 11,247.26, Hang Seng increased 42.12 points or 0.16% to 26,767.80, Straits Times advanced 25.11 points or 0.8% to 3,164.26 and KOSPI was up by 24.37 points or 1.18% to 2,089.21.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite declined 2.63 points or 0.09% to 2,936.99 and Jakarta Composite was down by 17.51 points or 0.28% to 6,181.48.