Sensex, Nifty garner gains in early noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks garnered gains in early afternoon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty holding notable gains, despite negative cues from other Asian markets. Sentiments were upbeat, as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest census on foreign liabilities and assets of Indian direct investment entities for 2022-23 has showed that the United States (US) was the largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) in India, followed by Mauritius, the United Kingdom and Singapore. In case of overseas direct investment (ODI) also, Singapore, the United States and the United Kingdom were among the major destinations. Besides, India's G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said that the New Delhi G20 declaration adopted by leaders has demonstrated India's great ability to be a champion of multilateralism and bring the world together on global developmental issues and conflicts like the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, even after confidence among Japanese large manufacturers improved in the third quarter. A quarterly business outlook survey from the Ministry of Finance showed that the business survey index of large manufacturers rose to 5.4 in the third quarter from -0.4 in the second quarter. The score was forecast to rise to 0.2. At the same time, the BSI for large non-manufacturers climbed to 6.0 in the September quarter from 4.1 a quarter ago.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 67385.47, up by 164.34 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 67053.36 and 67410.69. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.30%, while Small cap index was up by 0.31%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.10%, Energy up by 1.08%, Oil & Gas up by 1.06%, Metal up by 0.92% and PSU up by 0.82%, while Capital Goods down by 0.82%, Industrials down by 0.59%, IT down by 0.26%, Auto down by 0.26% and Realty down by 0.20% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 1.64%, Power Grid Corporation of India up by 1.36%, Axis Bank up by 1.23%, Tata Motors up by 1.01% and Titan Company up by 0.93%. On the flip side, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.33%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.68%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.59%, HCL Technologies down by 0.56% and Infosys down by 0.24% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has suggested the auto industry not to import components unnecessarily if the exporting country is not giving equal access to Indian players. However, he said that companies can import quality products if those are not available or manufactured domestically.

Goyal also said that the government may have to look at the practices of some of the players in the sector who get dictated by their parent companies on sourcing and pricing of imports of components. He also said that there are certain companies who by choice prefer to import and there are certain firms who may not by themselves be importing and on record showing a greater degree of indigenisation. He said ‘but the moment, we go down one or two levels into their supply chain, we find them still dependent on imports. Often being dictated by their parent company from where these component suppliers would source, the pricing at which it will be sourced.’

The minister further said that the government may have to take retaliatory action against countries that do not allow access to Indian steel companies but are permitted to send the metal to India. He said the auto industry is still dependent for 20 per cent of its requirement on imports and this dependence varies across companies which shows that some of them are importing by choice. Further, he dismissed the contention of some of the global auto firms which say that they bring investments into India.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 20051.45, up by 58.25 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 19944.10 and 20051.95. There were 30 stocks advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Grasim Industries up by 3.62%, Coal India up by 3.21%, BPCL up by 1.89%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.67% and ONGC up by 1.33%. On the flip side, HDFC Life Insurance down by 1.50%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.40%, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone down by 1.28%, Divi's Laboratories down by 0.90% and Hero MotoCorp down by 0.87% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Shanghai Composite weakened 14.38 points or 0.46% to 3,122.68, Nikkei 225 slipped 69.85 points or 0.21% to 32,706.52, Jakarta Composite plunged 11.96 points or 0.17% to 6,922.01, Straits Times fell 4.12 points or 0.13% to 3,210.34 and KOSPI dropped 1.88 points or 0.07% to 2,534.70, while Taiwan Weighted added 8.8 points or 0.05% to 16,581.51 and Hang Seng advanced 1.82 points or 0.01% to 18,027.71.