Bourses trade above water in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets wiped out their all losses and traded near neutral lines with positive bias in late afternoon session. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index were trading higher. Buying in SBI, Tata Steel and Ultratech Cement stocks helped the markets to recover from losses. Traders took support after Russia became India’s top oil supplier in October, surpassing traditional sellers Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Russia, which made up for just 0.2 per cent of all oil imported by India in the year to March 31, 2022, supplied 935,556 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil to India in October - the highest ever. Besides, India’s foreign exchange reserves increased by a massive $6.6 billion to $531.1 billion for the week ended October 28, marking their biggest weekly gain since September 2021.

On the global front, all Asian markets were trading higher amid growing expectations that the Federal Reserve will slow its pace of interest rate hikes, while Chinese stocks lagged after the country reiterated its commitment to maintaining strict COVID-related curbs. European markets were trading mostly in green as official data showed German industrial production grew in September after falling a month ago.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 60,996.82, up by 46.46 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 60714.36 and 61401.54. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.47%, while Small cap index was up by 0.50%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 1.83%, Auto up by 1.08%, Metal up by 1.03%, Energy up by 0.51% and Oil & Gas was up by 0.51%, while Healthcare down by 1.10%, Consumer Durables down by 0.74%, TECK down by 0.22%, IT down by 0.20% and Capital Goods was down by 0.11% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were SBI up by 3.44%, Tata Steel up by 2.10%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.05%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.93% and Power Grid up by 0.80%. On the flip side, Asian Paints down by 2.23%, Titan Company down by 1.52%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.43%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.31% and Sun Pharma down by 1.30% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) in its latest data has showed that unemployment rate in India jumped to 7.77 per cent in October 2022 as compared to 6.43 per cent in September 2022 on the account of a sharp increase in rural unemployment.

According to the data, six out of the 25 states showed an unemployment rate in double figures. These included Haryana at 31.8 per cent, Rajasthan at 30.7 per cent, Jammu and Kashmir at 22.4 per cent, Jharkhand at 16.5 per cent, Bihar at 14.5 per cent and Tripura at 10.5 per cent. Madhya Pradesh recorded the lowest unemployment rate at 0.9 per cent, followed by Chhattisgrah at 0.9 per cent, Odisha at 1.1 per cent and Gujrat at 1.7 per cent.

The data further revealed that the rural unemployment rate rose to 8.04 per cent in October from 5.84 per cent in September. At the same time, the urban unemployment rate slid to 7.21 per cent in October compared to 7.7 per cent in September.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18126.55, up by 9.40 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 18064.75 and 18255.50. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Britannia up by 8.70%, SBI up by 3.40%, Adani Enterprises up by 3.35%, BPCL up by 2.41% and Tata Motors up by 2.39%. On the flip side, Divi's Lab down by 7.64%, Asian Paints down by 2.29%, Cipla down by 2.19%, Titan Company down by 1.55% and Bajaj Finserv down by 1.38% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading higher, Hang Seng increased 434.77 points or 2.69% to 16,595.91, Nikkei 225 surged 327.90 points or 1.21% to 27,527.64, Taiwan Weighted strengthened 197.02 points or 1.51% to 13,223.73, Jakarta Composite soared 56.87 points or 0.81% to 7,102.40, KOSPI rose 23.36 points or 0.99% to 2,371.79, Shanghai Composite gained 7.02 points or 0.23% to 3,077.82 and Straits Times was up by 3.11 points or 0.1% to 3,133.22.

European markets were trading mostly in green, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 5.04 points or 0.07% to 7,339.88 and Germany’s DAX was up by 34.65 points or 0.26% to 13,494.50. On the flip side, France’s CAC was down by 6.56 points or 0.1% to 6,409.88.