Key gauges remain in green in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks remained in the positive territory in morning deals, led by supportive global cues, marginal ease in crude oil prices, and the on-going earnings season. Sentiments remained positive with a private survey stating that manufacturing activity in India gained steam in October as companies scaled up production in line with a substantial upturn in new work intakes. Similarly, factory output increased at a sharp pace that was the strongest since March. At 55.9 in October, vs 53.7 in September, the seasonally adjusted IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index was in expansion territory for the fourth month in a row in October, pointing to the strongest improvement in overall operating conditions since February. Some support also came with data showing that the growth of eight core infrastructure industries grew by 4.4 percent in September 2021 as compared to same month last year on account of healthy performance by segments like natural gas, refinery products and cement. Though, it fell as compared to 11.5 per cent in the previous month. Meanwhile, government data showed India's federal fiscal deficit during April-September, the first half of the current fiscal year, stood at 5.27 trillion rupees ($70.4 billion) or 35% of the budgeted target for the whole year.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green led by a post-election jump in Japan's Nikkei, though bonds wobbled and the dollar firmed as traders braced for central bank meetings in Britain, Australia and the United States to define the rates policy outlook. Back home, on the sectoral front, banking stocks remained in focus with report that public sector banks will implement common staff accountability policies for loan accounts up to Rs 50 crore, excluding fraud accounts, turning into non-performing assets (NPAs) on or after April 1, 2022.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 59639.69, up by 332.76 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 59419.42 and 59830.31. There were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.79%, while Small cap index was up by 0.79%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.09%, Metal up by 2.75%, Telecom up by 2.38%, TECK up by 1.82% and IT up by 1.69%, while Energy down by 0.56% was the lone losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 4.03%, Tata Steel up by 3.74%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 3.22%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.75% and HCL Technologies up by 2.39%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.99%, Reliance Industries down by 1.03%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.79%, Nestle down by 0.75% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.54% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest data has showed that banks’ non-food credit growth accelerated to 6.8 per cent in September 2021 as against a rise of 5.1 per cent in the same period of last year.  Loans to agriculture and allied activities registered a higher growth of 9.9 per cent in September 2021 as compared to 6.2 per cent in the year-ago period.

Data further showed that credit growth to industry picked up to 2.5 per cent in September 2021 from 0.4 per cent in September 2020. Size-wise, credit to medium industries registered a robust growth of 49 per cent in September 2021 as compared to 17.5 per cent last year. Credit to micro and small industries accelerated to 9.7 per cent in September 2021 from a contraction of 0.1 per cent a year ago.

Besides, it showed advances to large industries continued to contract at one per cent in September 2021 as compared to a contraction of 0.2 per cent a year ago. Credit growth to the services sector decelerated to 0.8 per cent in September 2021 from 9.2 per cent in September 2020, mainly due to contraction in loan growth to NBFCs, trade and commercial real estate. Personal loans registered an accelerated growth of 12.1 per cent in September 2021 as compared to 8.4 per cent a year ago, primarily due to faster credit growth in housing, vehicle loans, and loans against gold jewellery.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17752.20, up by 80.55 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 17697.10 and 17833.60. There were 39 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Tata Steel up by 3.78%, Indusind Bank up by 3.69%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.38%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 3.04% and HCL Technologies up by 2.47%. On the flip side, UPL down by 3.34%, Bajaj Finserv down by 2.05%, Reliance Industries down by 1.24%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.95% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.78% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Jakarta Composite soared 8.54 points or 0.13% to 6,599.89, Straits Times advanced 26.64 points or 0.83% to 3,224.81, Nikkei 225 surged 716.26 points or 2.48% to 29,608.95, Shanghai Composite gained 2.59 points or 0.07% to 3,549.93, KOSPI rose 12.37 points or 0.42% to 2,983.05, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 86.22 points or 0.51% to 17,073.63, while Hang Seng decreased 278.37 points or 1.1% to 25,098.87.