Volatility remains over Dalal street

Volatility remained over the Dalal Street in late morning deals, with both Sensex and Nifty trading marginally higher. Positive cues from other Asian markets were helping key indices to keep their heads above neutral lines in late morning session. However, upside remained capped, as traders got worried, after the World Bank said the coronavirus pandemic is expected to lead to the slowest growth in more than 50 years in East Asia and the Pacific as well as China, while up to 38 million people are set to be pushed back into poverty. The bank said the region this year is projected to grow by only 0.9%, the lowest rate since 1967.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, even after overall consumer prices in the Tokyo area were up 0.2 percent on year in September. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said that was shy of expectations for an increase of 0.3 percent, which would have been unchanged from the August reading. Core CPI, which excludes volatile food prices, slipped an annual 0.2 percent. That exceeded forecasts for a drop of 0.3 percent, which also would have been unchanged from the previous month.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 38013.76, up by 32.13 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 37860.43 and 38235.94. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.05%, while Small cap index was down by 0.15%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.14%, Energy up by 1.10%, IT up by 0.82%, Consumer Durables up by 0.71% and Basic Materials up by 0.40%, while Telecom down by 2.20%, Bankex down by 1.17%, PSU down by 0.92%, Utilities down by 0.65% and Realty down by 0.60% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 2.58%, Titan Company up by 1.99%, Reliance Industries up by 1.55%, Tata Steel up by 1.52% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.21%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 3.55%, ONGC down by 2.36%, Axis Bank down by 1.99%, ICICI Bank down by 1.93% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.87% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with a focus on significantly boosting indigenous production and turning India into a global manufacturing hub of weapons and military platforms, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has unveiled a new Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP). Singh said the DAP has also included provisions to encourage foreign direct investment (FDI) to establish manufacturing hubs both for import substitution and exports while protecting the interests of Indian domestic industry.

Under the new policy, the offset guidelines have also been revised facilitating preference to defence majors offering to manufacture products in India over relevant components. the Minister said ‘the offset guidelines have also been revised, wherein preference will be given to manufacture of complete defence products over components and various multipliers have been added to give incentivisation in discharge of offsets’.

He said the DAP has been aligned with the vision of the government's 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' (self-reliant India) initiative and to empower Indian domestic industry through 'Make in India' projects with the ultimate aim of turning India into a global manufacturing hub. The policy also provides for single stage accord of AoN (Acceptance of Necessity) in all cases up to Rs 500 crore to cut delays in approval of acquisition proposals. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11235.30, up by 7.75 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 11192.85 and 11305.40. There were 19 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 4.20%, Hero MotoCorp up by 3.00%, TCS up by 2.58%, Titan Company up by 1.88% and Tata Steel up by 1.48%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 3.32%, ONGC down by 2.37%, Axis Bank down by 2.07%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.94% and ICICI Bank down by 1.91% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 53.80 points or 0.23% to 23,565.42, KOSPI rose 22.82 points or 0.99% to 2,330.90, Jakarta Composite soared 19.82 points or 0.4% to 4,926.37, Shanghai Composite gained 16.86 points or 0.52% to 3,234.39 and Straits Times advanced 14.87 points or 0.6% to 2,497.88. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted dropped 12.20 points or 0.1% to 12,450.56 and Hang Seng decreased 57.82 points or 0.25% to 23,418.23.