Markets continue to trade in positive terrain

Indian stock markets continued to trade in positive terrain in afternoon session with Sensex and Nifty trading above 40,600 and 11,900 levels respectively. Buying in frontline stocks such as Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki and Power Grid were aiding sentiment, while selling in Ultratech Cement, Hindustan Unilever and Axis Bank kept the gains in the markets in check. Besides, broader indices were also trading in green, supporting their larger peers. Sentiments remained positive as Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar expressed confidence that money and resources will be in place for a viable and effective vaccination system to fight COVID-19, even as he said it is quite premature to talk about the cost for getting the vaccination. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India in its latest data has showed that bank credit grew by 5.66 per cent to Rs 103.44 lakh crore, while deposits increased by 10.55 per cent to Rs 143.02 lakh crore in the fortnight ended October 9. In the fortnight ended October 11, 2019, bank credit had stood at Rs 97.89 lakh crore and deposits at Rs 129.38 lakh crore.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly higher after President Donald Trump and his challenger former Vice President Joe Biden faced off in their second and final debate before the November 3 election. Back on street, in scrip specific developments, Aditya Birla Fashion zoomed on entering into commercial agreement with Flipkart India and Yes Bank jumped on offering discounts on credit card purchases, loans at competitive rates.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40675.10, up by 116.61 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 40590.90 and 40811.12. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index surged 0.63%, while Small cap index was up by 0.65%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Consumer Durables up by 1.89%, Auto up by 1.80%, Consumer Discretionary up by 1.34%, Metal up by 1.06% and Telecom was up by 0.73%, while Realty down by 0.50%, Bankex down by 0.34% and FMCG was down by 0.23% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 3.28%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.89%, Power Grid up by 2.61%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.83% and Tech Mahindra was up by 1.22%. On the flip side, Ultratech Cement down by 1.34%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.26%, Axis Bank down by 0.96%, SBI down by 0.71% and Kotak Mahindra Bank was down by 0.57% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Niti Aayog Member V K Saraswat has said that there is a need for a well-developed non-ferrous metals industry in India as it provides important raw material to many sectors which are the backbone of economic development. He also said ‘with increasing usage of non-ferrous metals in several existing as well as emerging applications coupled with new technologies, we can expect a paradigm shift that can change the way non-ferrous metals will be produced and consumed in the future’.

In order to further boost the sector, Saraswat has emphasized on early implementation of the recycling policy.  He noted that the much-needed reforms on guidelines or standards for boosting domestic scrap recycling would be addressed by the Metal Recycling Policy which the government has formulated along with the industry stakeholders. He added that the industry must also invest more on R&D in order to become globally competitive.

Niti Aayog Member further said that the government's role is to provide policy initiatives and ease of doing business, but industry must come forward with investments in high-value products for producing not only for the domestic markets but also for exports. He pointed out that the government is working on issues like inverted duty structure, dumping of goods under various FTAs, poor infrastructure, high logistics and power costs and taxation.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11933.65, up by 37.20 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 11908.75 and 11974.55. There were 28 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining, while 2 stocks remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 3.23%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 2.82%, Maruti Suzuki up by 2.78%, Power Grid up by 2.48% and Tata Motors was up by 2.17%. On the flip side, Shree Cement down by 1.76%, GAIL India down by 1.52%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.29%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.23% and SBI Life Insurance was down by 0.92% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly higher; Nikkei 225 surged 42.32 points or 0.18% to 23,516.59, Straits Times advanced 2.82 points or 0.11% to 2,531.23, KOSPI rose 5.76 points or 0.24% to 2,360.81, Jakarta Composite soared 14.36 points or 0.28% to 5,106.18 and Hang Seng increased 39.46 points or 0.16% to 24,825.59.

On the other hand, Shanghai Composite declined 19.33 points or 0.58% to 3,293.17 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 18.21 points or 0.14% to 12,898.82.