Benchmarks extend gains in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks extended gains in morning deals, helped by gains in Metal, Realty and Power stocks, with investors eyeing quarterly updates from companies ahead of corporate earnings season. Traders took a note of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stating that recent tightening actions by many central banks around the world will help to prevent high inflation from becoming entrenched. Traders overlooked a private survey showed that growth in India's services industry slumped in September to a six-month low, led by a substantial easing in demand amid high inflation. The S&P Global India services Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 54.3 in September from August's 57.2, much lower than the Reuters poll expectation for a gentle drop to 57.0. Despite staying above the 50-mark separating growth from contraction for the fourteenth straight month - the longest stretch of expansion since October 2016 - the index fell to its lowest since March.  On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green reflecting the late night rebound on Wall Street even as investors broadly downplayed the impact of rising oil prices. Still, downside risks remain after strong US economic data reiterated the Federal Reserve's aggressive rate hike path.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 58530.95, up by 465.48 points or 0.80% after trading in a range of 58293.34 and 58578.76. There were 25 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.26%, while Small cap index was up by 1.45%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 3.12%, Realty up by 2.35%, Power up by 1.84%, Utilities up by 1.83% and Capital Goods up by 1.81%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 2.32%, HCL Tech. up by 2.07%, Sun Pharma up by 1.94%, Infosys up by 1.90% and Axis Bank up by 1.88%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 0.87%, Indusind Bank down by 0.78%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.68%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.38% and HDFC down by 0.06% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest report has said that India Inc's foreign commercial borrowings in August this year rose by nearly 4.6 per cent to USD 2.98 billion. In August 2021, the Indian businesses borrowed USD 2.85 billion in the form of external commercial borrowings.
It stated of the total borrowings in August this year, over USD 2.47 billion was through the automatic route of raising funds from foreign sources. While more than USD 502.79 million was raised by way of issuing rupee denominated bonds (RDBs) or masala bonds.

It further mentioned among the major borrowers include mortgage lender HDFC USD 1.1 billion for the purpose of sub-lending; FS India Solar Ventures USD 500 million for a new project; Fullerton India Credit Co USD 350 million for sub-lending and Toyota Financial Services USD 50 million for refinancing of Rupee loans.

Among others, IIFL Finance raised USD 50 million for refinancing of earlier ECB; Tata Sia Airlines raised USD 36 million for import of capital goods; Flender Drvies USD 31.37 million for working capital requirement and Hyundai Transys India USD 23.3 million for refinancing of earlier ECB. AM Green Energy was the only company to issue masala bonds for the entire USD 502.79 million for a new project.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17410.00, up by 135.70 points or 0.79% after trading in a range of 17344.75 and 17428.80. There were 40 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were JSW Steel up by 3.56%, Hindalco up by 3.30%, Coal India up by 3.23%, Tata Steel up by 2.37% and HCL Tech. up by 2.17%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 1.20%, Indusind Bank down by 1.03%, Cipla down by 0.84%, Hindustan Unilever down by 0.82% and Britannia Industries down by 0.56% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 267.86 points or 0.99% to 27,388.39, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 45.20 points or 0.33% to 13,846.63, Jakarta Composite soared 11.53 points or 0.16% to 7,086.92, KOSPI rose 34.26 points or 1.55% to 2,249.48, Straits Times advanced 13.60 points or 0.43% to 3,166.83.

On the flip side, Hang Seng decreased 77.79 points or 0.43% to 18,010.18.