Positive trade continues over Dalal Street

Positive trade continued over the Dalal Street in late morning session, with both Sensex and nifty trading in green terrain, despite negative cues from other Asian markets. Domestic sentiments remained positive, as a monthly survey said that India's services sector activity expanded at the strongest pace in ten-and-a-half years in October, driven by a substantial upturn in business activity amid favourable demand conditions. Besides, in a bid to streamlining the functioning of asset reconstruction companies (ARCs), a Reserve Bank committee has come out with a host of suggestions including the creation of online platform for the sale of stressed assets and allowing ARCs to act as resolution applicants during the IBC process.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, even after China's service sector logged a strong momentum in October underpinned by business activity and new work. The data published by IHS Markit showed that the Caixin services Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 53.8 in October from 53.4 in September. The rate of growth was the quickest seen since July. A reading above 50.0 indicates expansion in the sector.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60207.40, up by 178.34 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 60133.00 and 60361.82. There were 21 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.12%, while Small cap index was up by 0.20%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 2.65%, Realty up by 1.87%, Industrials up by 1.30%, Metal up by 1.01% and Basic Materials up by 0.69%, while Telecom down by 0.55%, Consumer Durables down by 0.48%, FMCG down by 0.29%, Energy down by 0.11% and Auto down by 0.08% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 4.82%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.94%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.62%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.10% and Infosys up by 0.87%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.84%, Titan Company down by 0.82%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.75%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.46% and ICICI Bank down by 0.44% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that India has an ‘unprecedented opportunity’ to grow electronics manufacturing to $300 billion in the next 3-4 years, building on scale, competitiveness, large market and enabling policies.  He also said the world is seeking more trusted sources for electronics manufacturing post the outbreak of COVID-19 and India has all the essential elements in place to seize the opportunity.

The minister said the opportunity is ‘real’ and India has the ability to leverage its strengths in electronics design, systems design and software design alongwith manufacturing, to gain global marketshare. He promised that the IT Ministry is committed to providing full support to the industry by way of PLI (Production Linked Incentive) schemes, logistics efficiencies and enabling policy to help the industry in achieving the targets.

Chandrasekhar released a vision document on 'increasing India's electronics exports and share in Global Value Chain' that outlines the sheer scale of opportunity along with challenges, and suggests a policy prescription for India to grow from current about $75 billion in 2020-21 to $300 billion by 2025. Of the $300 billion target, nearly 40 per cent would be exports. According to the vision document, the electronics sector has the potential to become one of the top exports of India in the next 3–5 years, together with a number of products for which important export hubs could be created in the country.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17950.40, up by 61.45 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 17926.15 and 17988.75. There were 35 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Larsen & Toubro up by 4.92%, UPL up by 4.09%, Indian Oil Corp. up by 2.29%, Hindalco up by 2.07% and Tech Mahindra up by 1.88%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.97%, Divi's Lab down by 1.20%, Britannia down by 0.89%, Titan Co down by 0.87% and Bharti Airtel down by 0.83% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 242.66 points or 0.97% to 24,857.01, KOSPI fell 34.50 points or 1.14% to 2,978.99, Shanghai Composite declined 13.17 points or 0.38% to 3,492.46 and Straits Times trembled 13.04 points or 0.4% to 3,219.33. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite soared 31.36 points or 0.48% to 6,524.64 and Taiwan Weighted strengthened 46.66 points or 0.27% to 17,112.63.