Benchmarks continue to trade marginally in red

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade marginally in red on Wednesday as investors await fresh cues from US Federal Reserve's monetary policy review meeting outcome to be announced later today. Some concern came with data released by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) showed that after the unemployment rate fell to a four year low in September, it rose to a four month high of 7.77 per cent in October. However, losses remain capped as exchange data showed Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers on Tuesday as they bought shares worth Rs 2,609.94 crore. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India will press for collective efforts to deal with the spillovers of happenings in advanced economies as well as global regulation of crypto assets to check terror funding under its G20 presidency. She outlined eight priority areas, including reforms in multilateral institutions and food and energy security, for discussion under its G20 presidency which will begin from December 1.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green despite a retreat on Wall Street. A private survey of manufacturers showed some improvement in the business outlook in China, helping to counter renewed concerns over COVID-19 outbreaks in some cities. Back home, gold industry stocks remained in limelight as a World Gold Council (WGC) report showed that India's gold demand has reached pre-pandemic levels and has witnessed an annual growth of 14 per cent during the July-September quarter at 191.7 tonnes mainly driven by strong consumer interest

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61,023.69, down by 97.66 points or 0.16% after trading in a range of 60,965.58 and 61209.65. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.24%, while Small cap index up by 0.44%.

The top  gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 1.35%, Metal up by 1.16%, FMCG up by 0.16%, Financial Services up by 0.11% and Industrials up by 0.11%, while Telecom down by 0.90%, Auto down by 0.62%, Information Technology down by 0.59%, Consumer Discretionary down by 0.22% and Power down by 0.16% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma Inds. up by 5.19%, NTPC up by 4.91%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 4.09%, Power Grid Corp up by 2.72% and Bajaj Finserv up by 1.98%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 4.17%, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.13%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.04%, Reliance Industries down by 1.06% and Hindustan Unilever down by 1.03% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister for textiles and commerce and industry Piyush Goyal has said the government is considering the second phase of the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the textile sector to help the industry compete with top exporting countries like China and Vietnam.

The minister instructed officials of the ministry to undertake extensive and exhaustive stakeholder consultations before finalising the contours of PLI 2.0. He asked them to make PLI 2.0 robust and emphasised that PLI 2.0 would empower the sector to compete globally with top exporting countries like China, Vietnam.

Besides, he stated Textile industry has immense potential to accelerate job creation, exports and growth. He emphasised that the textile sector's USP (unique selling point) should not be restricted to cheap labour; workers should be paid well and given social security. Moreover, he acknowledged the textile sector's inherent capability to create employment and drive both growth and exports and said that textiles was one of the sectors identified by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an industry with immense potential.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18,127.55, down by 17.85 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 18,101.85 and 18,178.75. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Sun Pharma Inds. up by 2.69%, Hindalco up by 2.14%. Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.62%, ONGC up by 1.52% and Divi's Lab up by 1.40%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.82%, Eicher Motors down by 1.97%, Apollo Hospital Ent. down by 1.57%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.53% and Infosys down by 1.12%.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Hang Seng increased 268.96 points or 1.74% to 15,724.23, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 33.06 points or 0.25% to 13,070.27, Shanghai Composite gained 26.06 points or 0.88% to 2,995.26 and KOSPI rose 2.54 points or 0.11% to 2,337.76.

On the flip side, Straits Times trembled 6.96 points or 0.22% to 3,123.54, Nikkei 225 slipped 29.78 points or 0.11% to 27,649.14 and Jakarta Composite lost 30.58 points or 0.43% to 7,021.72.