Sensex, Nifty trade near neutral lines in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks were trading near their neutral lines, with both Sensex and Nifty trading in red terrain. Negative cues from other Asian markets impacted domestic sentiments. Traders got cautious, amid reports that for the first time this fiscal, the weighted average cost of states' market borrowings crossed the 7 percentage mark at the auctions held on Monday with the average cut-off jumping by 12 bps to 7.02 per cent. Besides, SBI Research in its latest report has said that the digitisation drive and pandemic-induced emergence of the gig economy have led to a faster formalisation of the economy, with the share of the informal sector shrinking to just 15-20 per cent in 2021 from 52.4 per cent in 2018.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, after the Hong Kong economy grew at a slower pace in the third quarter due to the base effect and the stronger-than-expected economic performance in the first half of the year. Gross domestic product grew 5.4 percent year-on-year, slower than the 7.6 percent expansion in the second quarter, the advance estimates from the Census and Statistics Department showed on Monday.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60118.72, down by 19.74 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 59918.85 and 60421.14. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.31%, while Small cap index was up by 1.08%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.53%, Auto up by 1.46%, Utilities up by 1.30%, Power up by 1.03% and Consumer discretionary up by 0.93%, while Energy down by 0.52%, Healthcare down by 0.35%, Metal down by 0.13%, Basic Materials down by 0.09% and FMCG down by 0.02% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 3.42%, NTPC up by 1.90%, Titan Company up by 1.19%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.86% and Larsen & Toubro up by 0.84%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.69%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.66%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 1.23%, Tata Steel down by 0.92% and Indusind Bank down by 0.88% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in its provisional data has showed that India's merchandise exports surged 42.33 percent to $35.47 billion in October 2021 as compared to $24.92 billion in October 2020, on the back of good performance by the engineering and petroleum sectors. The merchandise imports surged 62.49 percent to $55.37 billion from $34.07 billion in October 2020. It was $37.99 billion in October 2019. The trade deficit in October 2021 was $19.9 billion as gold imports almost doubled to $5.1 billion. The gap between imports and exports have totalled $98.71 billion during April-October 2021. Outward shipments of engineering goods, which accounted for 28.19 percent of total exports in October, increased 50.7 percent year-on-year to $9.38 billion.

As per the data, exports of petroleum products too were up 231.63 percent on annual basis at $5.19 billion. Another major chunk of exports, which comes from the gems and jewellery sector, rose 44.24 percent to $4.22 billion. Exports from the labour-intensive textiles sector, which accounts for 3.5 percent of the total outward shipments, increased by 6.4 percent to $1.25 billion in October. India also exported electronic goods worth $1.34 billion during the month under review against $966 million in October 2020. On the import front, the inbound shipments of 'petroleum, crude and products' soared 140.5 percent to $14.43 billion from $6 billion in October 2020. Import of electronic goods stood at $6.81 billion (up 23 percent) and machinery, electrical and non-electrical segment stood at $3.54 billion (up 41.78 percent). The value of non-petroleum exports in October 2021 was $30.27 billion, registering a positive growth of 29.63 percent over non-petroleum exports of $23.35 billion in the year-ago month.

Besides, the gold imports stood at $5.1 billion this October compared to $2.49 billion in the year-ago month, an increase of 104.25 percent. The vegetable oil imports were valued at $1.62 billion during October 2021, up 59.59 percent on a year-on-year basis. India's merchandise exports in April-October 2021 was $232.58 billion, a rise of 54.51 percent over $150.53 billion in the year-ago period. It was $185.4 billion in April-October 2019. Also, the value of non-petroleum imports was $40.94 billion, a growth of 45.82 per cent over $28.07 billion in October 2020.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17926.05, down by 3.60 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 17872.25 and 18012.25. There were 23 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 3.39%, NTPC up by 1.86%, Titan Company up by 1.23%, Tata Motors up by 1.18% and HDFC Life Insurance up by 0.90%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.68%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.63%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 1.18%, Indusind Bank down by 0.94% and JSW Steel down by 0.89% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 158.73 points or 0.54% to 29,488.35, Jakarta Composite lost 28.47 points or 0.43% to 6,524.42, Taiwan Weighted dropped 25.04 points or 0.15% to 17,043.20 and Shanghai Composite declined 22.15 points or 0.62% to 3,522.33. On the flip side, Straits Times advanced 4.13 points or 0.13% to 3,223.18, KOSPI rose 40.32 points or 1.35% to 3,019.26 and Hang Seng increased 185.01 points or 0.74% to 25,339.33.