Domestic indices trade under pressure in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made negative start on Tuesday following weakness in global peers and amid rising geopolitical tensions in Europe. Markets are trading lower with cut of around 0.30% each amid subdued foreign flows. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net sellers to the tune of Rs 2,139.02 crore on October 10, as per provisional data available on the NSE. Selling in Oil & Gas, Energy and Metal counters, were adding pressure on domestic markets. Traders were concerned with a private report that India's retail inflation accelerated to a five month high of 7.30% in September due to surging food prices, staying well above the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) upper tolerance band for a ninth month.  Meanwhile, the government is planning to launch 7-8 production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes in the next round soon in a bid to further expand the coverage across critical manufacturing sectors, stimulate economic growth and spur job creation.

Most of the Asian markets are trading lower following the broadly negative cues from global markets overnight, amid the geopolitical worries surrounding the Russia-Ukraine war and the U.S.-China chip war. The sign of fresh COVID outbreaks in China and fresh lockdowns and travel restrictions is also weighing on market sentiment. Back home, insurance industry stocks were in focus as Debasish Panda, chairman, IRDAI said the Indian insurance sector, which is growing at 11 per cent CAGR for the last five years, the momentum is expected to continue and could lead India to become the sixth largest market globally, from ten now. In stock specific development, Panacea Biotec rallied after it bagged Easyfive-TT vaccine supply order worth $127.3 million.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 57839.63, down by 151.48 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 57742.62 and 58027.52. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.03%, while Small cap index was up by 0.35%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 0.32%, IT up by 0.31%, Industrials up by 0.29%, Power up by 0.12%, TECK up by 0.12%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.72%, Energy down by 0.71%, Metal down by 0.67%, Auto down by 0.58%, PSU down by 0.39% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 1.41%, Infosys up by 0.70%, ITC up by 0.63%, Bajaj Finserv up by 0.60% and Bajaj Finance up by 0.60%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.02%, Power Grid down by 1.01%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.92%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.90% and Reliance Industries down by 0.90% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with the support of comprehensive economic partnership agreement, the UAE is aiming trade with India to cross $100 billion-mark over the next 2-3 years. The Indo-UAE trade stood at $73 billion in FY22, which got a major fillip since the two nations signed the comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) on May 1, 2022. Between FY21 and FY22, the overall trade rose 68% to $73 billion, after declining for two years. But the trend has reversed since the signing of CEPA.

The bilateral trade has increased markedly with total value of non-oil trade at $29.5 billion in first six months of 2022, growing 22% over the same period in 2021. Junior foreign trade minister of the UAE, Thani Bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi said non-oil exports too rose 31% with total value reaching $2.7 billion between May and June. He said ‘Though we've set a five-year deadline to take the UAE-India bilateral trade to $100 billion from what it is now, going by the way trade has been growing since the signing of the CEPA, I am confident that we'll achieve the target much earlier, say over the next two-three years’.

He said trade is still dominated by oil, which constitutes 62% of the overall trade value and only 38% are non-oil trade now. But he expressed hope that CEPA will change this over the years. He also said while non-oil trade balance is still in favour of India by a whisker, overall India has a trade deficit of $17 billion in FY22, led vastly by large oil imports. During the first half of 2022, bilateral non-oil trade grew 22% to $29.5 billion. The UAE minister also said his country's cumulative investments in India is over $20 billion, of which $14.4 billion are FDI, making the UAE the eighth largest FDI source for India. In April-June this year, FDI flows into the country from the UAE stood at $2.14 billion.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17187.00, down by 54.00 points or 0.31% after trading in a range of 17165.50 and 17261.80. There were 15 stocks advancing against 35 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Enterprises up by 1.86%, Asian Paints up by 1.57%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 0.85%, Infosys up by 0.60% and ITC up by 0.58%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.50%, Apollo Hospital down by 1.41%, Divi's Lab down by 1.39%, Eicher Motors down by 1.16% and JSW Steel down by 1.16% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 719.12 points or 2.65% to 26,396.99, Straits Times fell 1.31 points or 0.04% to 3,106.16, Hang Seng declined 240.40 points or 1.40% to 16,976.26, Taiwan Weighted plunged 549.13 points or 4.01% to 13,153.15, KOSPI lost 50.47 points or 2.26% to 2,182.37 and Jakarta Composite was down by 2.82 points or 0.04% to 6,991.58, while Shanghai Composite was up by 11.96 points or 0.40% to 2,986.11.