Local equities continue flat trade with negative bias

Local equity benchmarks continued their flat trade with negative bias in late afternoon session. Traders were seen piling positions in Telecom, Power and Utilities sector while selling was witnessed in Realty, Consumer Durables and Bankex sector stocks. Sentiments remained down-beat even after S&P Global Ratings in its latest report said India's external position has strengthened in the context of the pandemic and India has been generating forex reserves at a record pace. On sectoral front, textiles industry remained in focus, as in order to boost domestic manufacturing of man-made fibres (MMF), garments, and technical textiles, the Union Cabinet given green signal to the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for textiles for a budgetary outlay of Rs 10,683 crore. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed following a Federal Reserve report showing U.S. economic activity slowed this summer. European markets were trading lower as traders predicted that the European Central Bank would begin to discontinue financial stimulus to combat the crisis.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58221.61, down by 28.65 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 58084.99 and 58314.49. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.37%, while Small cap index was up by 0.43%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.79%, Power up by 1.14%, Utilities up by 0.83%, Metal up by 0.80% and Industrials was up by 0.62%, while Realty down by 0.56%, Consumer Durables down by 0.41%, Bankex down by 0.36%, Healthcare down by 0.26% and Energy was down by 0.17% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Nestle up by 2.32%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.93%, Tata Steel up by 1.04%, HCL Tech. up by 0.99% and ITC up by 0.76%. On the flip side, Titan Company down by 1.29%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.96%, Axis Bank down by 0.81%, HDFC Bank down by 0.77% and Bajaj Auto down by 0.71% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to enhance the investment by power sector CPSEs in renewable Energy Projects, Power Minister has held a meeting to discuss the Action Plan. The various decisions were arrived during the meeting including in-principle approval to be accorded to CPSUs of MoP for bidding of RE power projects at the beginning of year for a pre-determined capacity based on strength of their balance sheet.

The matter of enhancement of power of investment approval of Board of mini Ratna CPSUs for upward revision will be taken up with Department of Public Enterprises. The proposal for reducing hurdle rate IRR for RE Sector from 10% to 8%, will be taken up with Ministry of Finance.

Besides, bundling of RE projects with New or untied/high tariff hydro projects to be allowed so as to bring down the tariff of hydro power to consumers and proposal for waiver of Transmission charges for RE capacity under Flexibility Scheme to be considered.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17344.10, down by 9.40 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 17302.70 and 17369.15. There were 23 stocks advancing against 27 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 2.90%, Nestle up by 2.55%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.91%, Tata Motors up by 1.44% and Tata Steel up by 1.09%. On the flip side, SBI Life down by 3.83%, Titan Company down by 1.27%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.01%, Axis Bank down by 0.84% and HDFC Bank down by 0.74% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Jakarta Composite soared 42.20 points or 0.7% to 6,068.22, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 33.84 points or 0.2% to 17,304.33, Shanghai Composite gained 17.94 points or 0.49% to 3,693.13 and Straits Times was up by 2.29 points or 0.07% to 3,071.23. On the flip side, KOSPI fell 48.29 points or 1.53% to 3,114.70, Nikkei 225 slipped 173.02 points or 0.57% to 30,008.19 and Hang Seng was down by 604.93 points or 2.3% to 25,716.00.

European markets were trading lower, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 76.27 points or 1.07% to 7,019.26, France’s CAC decreased 22.01 points or 0.33% to 6,646.88 and Germany’s DAX was down by 44.48 points or 0.28% to 15,565.80.