Benchmarks continue to languish in negative zone

Indian equity benchmarks continued to languish in the negative zone in morning deals, on account of subdued global cues, spike in crude oil prices and persistent selling by foreign investors. Traders remained cautious with private report stated that hiring demand witnessed a dip of three per cent in October sequentially, mainly due to a decline in recruitment of professionals in purchase, logistics and supply chain after festive hiring hikes in September. Traders also took a note of report that the borrowing cost for the states has declined sharply to 6.81 percent at the weekly auctions held on November 9, mainly because they raised shorter tenor funds and 37 percent less than notified. Last week, the cost of debt for three states had peaked to the highest this fiscal at 7.02 per cent, up 12 bps over the previous week, despite most of the notified states drawing down less or not participating in the auctions.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red as surges in oil and Chinese factory prices added to worries that a hot U.S. inflation reading could renew pressure on policymakers to lift interest rates. Back home, on the sectoral front, Coal industry stocks remained in focus as the government said the country's total coal import dropped 12 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to 94.15 million tonnes (MT) in April-August 2021, on account of a substantial reduction in the import of non-coking coal.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60137.31, down by 296.14 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 59967.45 and 60295.26. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.24%, while Small cap index was up by 0.40%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 0.57%, Oil & Gas up by 0.50%, Auto up by 0.48%, Healthcare up by 0.29% and Energy up by 0.23%, while Metal down by 2.23%, Realty down by 1.45%, Basic Materials down by 0.88%, Bankex down by 0.80% and Consumer Durables down by 0.70% were the losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.40%, Sun Pharma Inds. up by 0.97%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.65%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 0.64% and Tech Mahindra up by 0.30%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 3.01%, Indusind Bank down by 2.04%, Asian Paints down by 1.55%, ICICI Bank down by 1.42% and Power Grid Corporation down by 1.23% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Credit ratings agency ICRA in its latest report has said that domestic air passenger traffic grew by a whopping 67 per cent year-on-year at around 87-88 lakh in October 2021 as compared to domestic passenger volume in October 2020 was at 52.71 lakh on the back of festive season demand amid continuous fall in the number of COVID-19 infection cases. It stated that the growth in domestic passenger traffic, on a sequential basis, was nearly 24-25 per cent higher compared to 71 lakh.

Moreover, it mentioned domestic carriers operated 46 per cent more flights at 72,000 during the month under review over 49,150 departures logged in October 2020, adding, on a sequential basis, the number of departures in October 2021 were higher by around 18 per cent, as COVID-19 infections demonstrated a downward trajectory.

Besides, it said for October 2021, the average daily departures were at around 2,400, significantly higher than the average daily departures of 1,585 in October 2020, and higher than around 2,100 in September 2021. The average number of passengers per flight during October this year was 122, against an average of 117 passengers per flight in the earlier month. The government allowed the airlines to operate at 100 per cent capacity from October 18, which is a step in the right direction, given the onset of the festive season.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17955.65, down by 88.60 points or 0.49% after trading in a range of 17915.00 and 17973.45. There were 18 stocks advancing against 31 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.45%, UPL up by 2.27%, Britannia Inds up by 1.39%, Cipla up by 1.07% and Sun Pharma up by 0.92%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 3.07%, JSW Steel down by 2.95%, Hindalco down by 2.60%, Coal India down by 2.11% and Indusind Bank down by 1.99% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 292.19 points or 1.18% to 24,520.94, Nikkei 225 slipped 150.37 points or 0.51% to 29,135.09, KOSPI fell 30.65 points or 1.03% to 2,931.81, Shanghai Composite declined 42.20 points or 1.2% to 3,464.80, Straits Times trembled 17.98 points or 0.55% to 3,225.44 and Jakarta Composite lost 11.05 points or 0.17% to 6,658.88.

On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 1.39 points or 0.01% to 17,542.75.