Markets trade near lowest points of the day

Local bourses widened their losses in late afternoon session, hovering near the lowest points of the day on account of selling in frontline counters. Weakness in Energy, Bankex, PSU shares dragged key gauges lower. The markets breadth was negative as 1639 shares were declining and 1634 were advancing, while 159 shares were unchanged on the BSE. Traders failed to get any sense of relief after Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said India attracted ‘record’ foreign direct investments in the last seven years and the trend is expected to continue in the coming years as well on account of major structural reforms being undertaken by the government.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed as a virtual meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the closest communication between the two countries' leaders since Biden took office in January, produced no major breakthrough on relations nor agreements to ease tensions. European markets were trading mostly in green, as UK unemployment rate declined in the third quarter. The unemployment rate decreased 0.5 percentage points on the quarter to 4.3 percent, the labor force survey revealed. At the same time, the employment rate increased 0.4 percentage points to 75.4 percent.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60367.06, down by 351.65 points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 60365.25 and 60802.79. There were 8 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.16%, while Small cap index was up by 0.48%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Auto up by 3.09%, Consumer discretionary up by 1.32%, IT up by 0.68%, Industrials up by 0.54% and TECK was up by 0.47%, while Energy down by 1.26%, Bankex down by 0.84%, PSU down by 0.70%, Healthcare down by 0.67% and Oil & Gas was down by 0.62% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 7.59%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.59%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.50%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.02% and Bajaj Finance up by 0.85%. On the flip side, SBI down by 1.75%, Reliance Industries down by 1.57%, NTPC down by 1.46%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.35% and Sun Pharma down by 1.33% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, highlighting concrete steps taken by the Government of India to increase capital spending and drive an infrastructure and investment-led growth, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the economy has been growing significantly post the second wave of pandemic and indicators such as imports, exports, PMI manufacturing, digital payments, etc. have already reached pre-pandemic levels.

Sitharaman also highlighted that with favourable international perception of India’s growth and in light of the structural, sectoral & financial, reforms undertaken by Government of India, global and domestic investors are upbeat about the investment attractiveness of the country. She added that states should leverage this opportunity to scale up investments and growth.

Besides, Finance Minister said that benefits of higher investment in infrastructure manifest in form of increased employment opportunities, access to market and materials, improved quality of life and empowerment of vulnerable sections. The Finance Minister said that she is looking forward to listening from states and understand their ideas and plans in the direction of investment enhancement.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18023.20, down by 86.25 points or 0.48% after trading in a range of 18020.25 and 18132.65. There were 14 stocks advancing against 36 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Maruti Suzuki up by 7.56%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.72%, Tata Motors up by 3.47%, Hero MotoCorp up by 2.33% and Eicher Motors up by 1.70%. On the flip side, Shree Cement down by 2.91%, Tata Consumer down by 1.83%, Grasim Industries down by 1.69%, SBI down by 1.68% and Reliance Industries down by 1.56% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mixed, Hang Seng increased 322.87 points or 1.27% to 25,713.78, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 58.66 points or 0.33% to 17,693.13, Jakarta Composite soared 35.18 points or 0.53% to 6,651.21 and Nikkei 225 was up by 31.32 points or 0.11% to 29,808.12. On the flip side, Straits Times trembled 1.14 points or 0.04% to 3,239.44, KOSPI fell 2.31 points or 0.08% to 2,997.21 and Shanghai Composite was down by 11.51 points or 0.33% to 3,521.79.

European markets were trading mostly in green, France’s CAC increased 14.80 points or 0.21% to 7,143.43 and Germany’s DAX increased 28.12 points or 0.17% to 16,176.76. On the flip side, UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 3.52 points or 0.05% to 7,348.34.