Sensex, Nifty trade near neutral lines in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks were trading near their neutral lines in late morning session, despite positive cues from other Asian markets. Traders were cautious, amid reports that Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) have been net sellers of domestic stocks for 5 consecutive days now. FIIs sold Rs 2,459 crore worth of equities on Monday. Domestic Institutional Investors, however, were net buyers of stocks worth Rs 2,390 crore. But, downside over the Dalal Street remained capped as RBI Governor Das said that RBI stresses on strong governance framework in banks, NBFCs for building resilient financial sector.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, after South Korea's gross domestic product rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent on quarter in the third quarter of 2021, the Bank of Korea said in Tuesday's advance estimate. That was shy of expectations for an increase of 0.6 percent and down from 0.8 percent in the previous three months.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60888.69, down by 78.36 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 60791.29 and 61404.87. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 1.14%, while Small cap index was up by 1.51%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.13%, Consumer Durables up by 1.87%, Basic Materials up by 1.45%, Metal up by 1.35% and Auto up by 1.20%, while Bankex down by 0.80% was the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tech Mahindra up by 2.25%, Tata Steel up by 2.04%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.56%, Titan Co up by 1.52% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.23%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 2.42%, Indusind Bank down by 1.72%, ICICI Bank down by 1.45%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.35% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.88% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Power Minister R K Singh has exuded confidence that there would be no power shortage in the country amid the ongoing low coal stocks at power plants and stressed on timely payments by distribution companies to the plants for electricity supplied to them. Singh assured ‘There won’t be any back down…There was no (power) outage yesterday. There was no (power shortage) and it did not happen even before. If there is some outage, then that is because of our own (states’) constraints.’  He informed that power plants in the country have more than 8 million tonnes of coal at present.

According to the latest report of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) which monitors 135 plants with over 165GW capacity, thermal projects had 8.1 million tonnes of coal on October 23, 2021, which is sufficient for four days (for these 135 plants). Besides, the report showed as many as 49 non-pithead plants had less than four days or supercritical stock of dry fuel on Saturday compared to 62 such plants a week ago on October 16. This shows gradual improvement in the coal stock situation at thermal power plants in the country.

Besides, about huge outstanding towards Coal India, he said ‘There is around Rs 16,000 crore which has not been paid to Coal India... unless and until discoms pays gencos (power generating firms) for the power supplied to them, the gencos would not be able to pay for coal.’  Talking about the gas shortage, he said ‘If you (states or power generators) have an agreement with GAIL (for gas supply) why don’t you renew that…. People should not go scare mongering (about power outages).’ He also drew attention towards inefficient management of captive coal mines by the states.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18129.35, up by 3.95 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 18099.30 and 18265.20. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors up by 4.98%, SBI Life Insurance up by 2.53%, Grasim Industries up by 2.41%, Hindalco up by 2.31% and Tech Mahindra up by 2.31%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 2.39%, Indusind Bank down by 1.74%, ICICI Bank down by 1.54%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.22% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.93% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 529.16 points or 1.85% to 29,129.57, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 145.39 points or 0.86% to 17,039.63, Jakarta Composite soared 38.03 points or 0.57% to 6,663.73, KOSPI rose 24.38 points or 0.81% to 3,044.92 and Shanghai Composite gained 3.02 points or 0.08% to 3,612.88. On the flip side, Straits Times trembled 6.03 points or 0.19% to 3,195.83 and Hang Seng decreased 103.09 points or 0.39% to 26,028.94.