Markets make positive start to trade higher in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks extended their previous session’s gains with positive start on Friday. Markets are trading higher with gains of around half a percent each in early deals with healthy buying in Bankex, PSU and FMCG counters. Some support came in as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought equities worth Rs 1,864.79 crore on 20 October, according to the provisional data available on the NSE. Traders also took note of a report that the Centre has exuded confidence that the prices of pulses and onions - the two main commodities which seasonally show a spike with the advent of winter - wouldn’t rise much this year, assuring it has adequate stocks in the event of a market intervention. Though, upside remained capped amid concerns over Labour Ministry data showing retail inflation for farm and rural workers increased to 7.69 percent and 7.9 percent respectively in September this year. The hike was attributed to higher prices of certain food items.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets are trading lower following the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight, with traders remaining cautious as concerns about the outlook for interest rates continue to drive global yields higher. China's status quo on interest rates and concerns about economic growth in China also dampened sentiment. Meanwhile, the Chinese government is likely to relax some quarantine restrictions, moving away somewhat from its zero-Covid policy.

Back home, defence industry stocks were in focus as terming exports as a key pillar for long-term sustainability of the domestic defence industry, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the government has set itself a target of achieving defence exports of $5 billion by 2025. He also said the government was eyeing overall turnover of $22 billion in defence production in the same timeframe. In stock specific development, YES Bank rose as CCI approves stake sales to Carlyle, Advent International. Reliance Industries is in limelight as the company likely to report quarterly earnings results later in the day.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 59473.36, up by 270.46 points or 0.46% after trading in a range of 59342.76 and 59549.66. There were 18 stocks advancing against 12 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.10%, while Small cap index was up by 0.25%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 1.30%, PSU up by 0.64%, FMCG up by 0.62%, Consumer Durables up by 0.56%, Capital Goods up by 0.44%, while Metal down by 0.59%, IT down by 0.30%, TECK down by 0.26%, Energy down by 0.03% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 5.88%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.00%, SBI up by 1.42%, Titan Co up by 1.29% and Ultratech Cement up by 0.94%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 1.00%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.81%, Indusind Bank down by 0.66%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.55% and HCL Technologies down by 0.44% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with an aim to promote outbound shipments, industry body -- Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has recommended the government a number of measures, including lowering freight and power costs for exporters and setting up a shipping regulator. CII National Committee on EXIM Chairman and Patton Group's MD Sanjay Budhia also urged for fast-tracking establishment of an export promotion body. He said there is also a need to do an internal export promotion and marketing exercise to get more businesses on the export markets.

Budhia said ‘Can we consider lower freight and power costs for exporters. It is not required to have subsidies but calibrated rates so that exporters are not cross subsidising other consumers. In this regard, including electricity costs under GST could be a way out to lower tax incidence’. He added that the government can consider a carve-out under the national logistics policy for investments in trade-related infrastructure.

He further said States should be encouraged to work on industrial park infrastructure, connectivity modes and faster clearances. He added that ‘Last year Indian exporters faced huge issues due to shortage of containers and high freights charges...With situation stable now, we should have our own shipping regulator and shipping line, which can protect Indian exporters during such turbulent times’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 17639.55, up by 75.60 points or 0.43% after trading in a range of 17603.70 and 17657.65. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 5.90%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.08%, HDFC Life Insurance up by 1.81%, SBI up by 1.58% and Titan Company up by 1.53%. On the flip side, JSW Steel down by 1.21%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.10%, Hindalco down by 0.96%, Indusind Bank down by 0.84% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.78% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 declined 86.43 points or 0.32% to 26,920.53, Straits Times fell 29.91 points or 0.99% to 2,992.79, Hang Seng lost 28.09 points or 0.17% to 16,252.13, Taiwan Weighted slipped 67.03 points or 0.52% to 12,879.07 and KOSPI was down by 5.70 points or 0.26% to 2,212.39. On the other hand, Jakarta Composite surged 47.70 points or 0.68% to 7,028.35 and Shanghai Composite was up by 15.13 points or 0.50% to 3,050.18.