Markets trim some gains in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks trimmed some of their initial gains but continued to trade in green terrain in morning deals, led by buying in IT, TECK and Healthcare stocks. Sentiments remained positive with Finance Secretary Tarun Bajaj’s statement that Indian economy is recovering fast and will soon be back on rails as all the parameters have started showing improvement. Some support also came with private report stated that India has a unique opportunity to adopt a more inclusive and proactive role in leveraging its vast pool of skilled resources, competitive costing and developed eco-system for select sectors to get ahead in the global supply chain reconfiguration race. However, gains remain capped with the government data showing that after recording positive growth in September, India's exports declined 5.4 percent to $24.82 billion in October on account of dip in shipments of petroleum products, gems and jewellery, leather, and engineering goods. Besides, trade deficit in October narrowed to $8.78 billion as against $11.76 billion, as imports also fell 11.56 percent to $33.6 billion during the month under review.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green ahead of the announcement of the U.S. presidential election results. Besides, IHS Market said that the services sector in Australia continued to expand in October, and at a faster pace, with a seasonally adjusted services PMI score of 53.7. That's up from 50.8 in September and it moves further above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction. Also, the Bank of Japan said that the monetary base in Japan was up 16.3 percent on year in October, coming in at 601.284 trillion yen. That follows the 14.3 percent jump in September. Back home, on the sectoral front, real estate sector remained in focus with report that institutional flow of funds in real estate fell 73 percent in January-September at $1.18 billion (around Rs 8,700 crore) as investors remained cautious due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 40435.77, up by 174.64 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 40107.96 and 40660.22. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.09%, while Small cap index up by 0.24%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 2.54%, TECK up by 2.05%, Healthcare up by 1.13%, Capital Goods up by 0.94% and Consumer Durables up by 0.76%, while Realty down by 1.56%, Telecom down by 1.21%, Bankex down by 0.93%, Metal down by 0.76% and PSU down by 0.69% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 5.06%, Infosys up by 3.49%, Indusind Bank up by 2.75%, Asian Paints up by 2.21% and TCS up by 2.08%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 2.61%, ICICI Bank down by 2.22%, Power Grid down by 1.61%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.29% and HDFC down by 1.18% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) K V Subramanian has said data should be thought of as infrastructure that must be invested upon like highways and airports. He said it is not just ease of doing business, but also ease of living that has to be enhanced using data.

He mentioned large scale data has to be extracted without violating any privacy laws. Data must provide a 360 degree view of an individual. Further, he stated data can be used in areas like agriculture, manufacturing, behavioural economics and MSME sector for improving productivity.

He said ‘I am extremely bullish on the start-up economy for enabling ease of living,’ adding that India has the second largest start-up ecosystem in the world. Besides, he pointed out that there is ample amount of data, especially administrative data, for use by start-ups.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 11851.40, up by 37.90 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 11777.70 and 11920.70. There were 27 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma up by 5.43%, Infosys up by 3.48%, Indusind Bank up by 3.00%, Wipro up by 2.80% and Asian Paints up by 2.52%. On the flip side, UPL down by 3.70%, Axis Bank down by 2.71%, ICICI Bank down by 2.14%, Power Grid down by 1.44% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.36% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 463.10 points or 1.99% to 23,758.58, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 107.09 points or 0.84% to 12,843.10, KOSPI rose 15.11 points or 0.64% to 2,358.42, Straits Times advanced 19.75 points or 0.79% to 2,516.97, Shanghai Composite gained 0.99 points or 0.03% to 3,272.06 and Jakarta Composite soared 6.70 points or 0.13% to 5,166.15.

On the flip side, Hang Seng decreased 6.25 points or 0.03% to 24,933.48.