Key indices extend gains to trade at day’s high points

Indian equity indices extended their gains in late afternoon deals to trade near their intraday high points, tracking firm European markets. Traders were taking encouragement with IT industry body Nasscom’s statement that with the addition of more than 1,300 startups this year so far, India continues to reinforce its position as the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world. Meanwhile, India has initiated a probe into alleged export subsidization by Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam on fibreboards, which is impacting the domestic industry.

On the global front, European markets were trading in green, after Germany's factory orders grew more than expected in September on rising domestic and foreign demand. The data from Destatis revealed that factory orders grew 1.3 percent month-on-month, reversing a 0.4 percent fall in August. Orders were forecast to climb 0.5 percent. Asian markets were also trading in green.

Back home, metal sector stocks were in watch, after Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that steel consumption in India is set for a quantum jump and investors should come forward and become a partner in the country's growth story.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40541.72, up by 293.49 points or 0.73% after trading in a range of 40037.53 and 40606.91. There were 21 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.34%, while Small cap index was down by 0.18%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.53%, Bankex up by 1.48%, Metal up by 0.91%, Capital Goods up by 0.71% and IT up by 0.71%, while Consumer Durables down by 4.90%, Telecom down by 2.56%, Consumer Disc down by 0.50%, Energy down by 0.38% and PSU down by 0.05% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 3.11%, Infosys up by 2.56%, Indusind Bank up by 1.87%, HDFC up by 1.71% and Tata Motors up by 1.63%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.94%, Maruti Suzuki down by 0.98%, HCL Tech. down by 0.70%, Reliance Industries down by 0.69% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.52% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid ongoing Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank crisis, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has reiterated the government commitment to rein in cooperative banks by bringing in necessary legislative changes.

Finance Minister noted that the government is not coming up with a complete solution immediately but it is moving towards better supervision and regulation for cooperative banks. Further, she underlined that the government and RBI discussed the ways at the meetings, to make sure that financial institutions are the best possible manner so that the depositors have confidence in parking their money in banks.

Besides, Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government is also having discussions on hiking the deposit insurance from Rs 1 lakh and that a decision will be taken after proper due diligence, further adding that the government would not like any other institution to fail like the Jet Airways or IL&FS and ruled out any asset quality review of NBFCs.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11984.40, up by 67.20 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 11850.25 and 12002.90. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 3.03%, Infosys up by 2.43%, Indusind Bank up by 1.87%, Cipla up by 1.76% and Eicher Motors up by 1.76%. On the flip side, Titan down by 9.40%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.94%, Bharti Infratel down by 1.06%, Sun Pharma down by 1.05% and Indian Oil Corporation down by 0.95% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 51.83 points or 0.22% to 23,303.82, Hang Seng increased 34.50 points or 0.12% to 27,717.90, Straits Times advanced 12.62 points or 0.39% to 3,261.25, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 9.04 points or 0.08% to 11,653.07 and KOSPI was up by 1.51 points or 0.07% to 2,144.15. On the flip side, Shanghai Composite declined 18.41 points or 0.62% to 2,973.15 and Jakarta Composite was down by 36.54 points or 0.58% to 6,227.61.

European markets were trading mostly in green; DAX gained 13.94 points or 0.11% to 13,162.44 and CAC was up by 5.65 points or 0.10% to 5,852.54, while FTSE was down by 8.59 points or 0.12% to 7,379.49.