Benchmarks continue to trade lower in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade lower in morning deals, weighed down by index heavyweights like Dr. Reddy's Lab, HDFC and Reliance Industries amid weak trend in other Asian equities. Sentiments remained down-beat as the latest payroll data released by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation showed the number of fresh formal jobs created fell for the second consecutive month in September, declining 9 per cent sequentially to 930,000. Enrolment of new female subscribers fell faster (11.39 per cent) than their male counterparts (8.13 per cent) in September, compared with the previous month. Traders overlooked data showing that retail inflation for farm and rural workers eased marginally to 7.22 per cent and 7.34 per cent, respectively, in October compared to September 2022, mainly due to lower prices of certain food items. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) weekly statistical supplement showed that India's foreign exchange reserves rose to $544.72 billion in the week through Nov. 11, marking their biggest weekly jump in more than a year.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red as investors fretted about more aggressive interest-rate hikes in the United States and surging COVID-19 cases in China. Back home, gem and jewellery sector stocks remained in watch as GJEPC said the gem and jewellery exports declined 14.64 per cent in October at Rs 25,843.84 crore due to seasonal trend as manufacturing activities are limited or closed during Diwali.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 61201.47, down by 462.01 points or 0.75% after trading in a range of 61116.99 and 61456.33. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.20%, while Small cap index was up by 0.09%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 0.08%, Auto up by 0.05%, Metal up by 0.04%, Industrials up by 0.01%, while Oil & Gas down by 1.32%, Energy down by 1.24%, IT down by 1.18%, Utilities down by 0.96% and Power down by 0.95% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Maruti Suzuki up by 0.82%, Tata Steel up by 0.71%, Axis Bank up by 0.69%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.48% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.11%. On the flip side, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 1.62%, HDFC down by 1.44%, Reliance Industries down by 1.43%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.42% and Tech Mahindra down by 1.39% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, S&P Global Market Intelligence in its latest report on the Indian banking sector has said that the rising interest rates will enable Indian banks to continue posting good profits during the remaining part of FY23. It stated five of the six biggest banks by assets in India reported an increase in net income for the fiscal second quarter ended September 30, 2022.

It mentioned ‘Banks took advantage of the higher interest rate environment to bolster their net interest margins, while previous efforts to reduce their non-performing assets resulted in lesser loan loss provisions, their recently released earnings reports showed.’

Besides, citing the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) data, it said the bank credit growth has picked up for both public and private sector banks in the first half of fiscal 2022-2023. Private sector banks' credit growth for the fiscal first half came to 20.4 per cent, compared to 13.9 per cent for public sector banks. According to the report, though the RBI had hiked its benchmark lending rate by 190 basis points to 5.90 per cent since May, further hike in the interest rate may not be steep since inflation may have peaked.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18167.20, down by 140.45 points or 0.77% after trading in a range of 18146.85 and 18262.30. There were 10 stocks advancing against 40 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 0.85%, Axis Bank up by 0.77%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.72%, Tata Steel up by 0.66% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.50%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 4.66%, SBI Life Insurance down by 2.55%, Adani Enterprises down by 1.66%, Tata Consumer Produc down by 1.57% and Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 1.51% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Hang Seng decreased 376.48 points or 2.09% to 17,616.06, Taiwan Weighted dropped 54.36 points or 0.37% to 14,450.63, KOSPI fell 31.76 points or 1.3% to 2,412.72, Straits Times trembled 25.92 points or 0.79% to 3,246.31, Shanghai Composite declined 25.15 points or 0.81% to 3,072.09 and Jakarta Composite lost 24.38 points or 0.34% to 7,057.80.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 surged 4.18 points or 0.01% to 27,903.95.