Bears tighten grip over Dalal Street

Bears have tighten their grip over the Dalal Street in early afternoon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty trading near their intraday low points, impacted by heavy selling at Power and PSU counters along with negative cues from other Asian markets, as data showing a bigger than expected increase in U.S. retail sales in September raised concerns the US Fed will keep interest rates higher for longer or even announce a rate hike this year. Higher bond yields and geopolitical concerns in the Middle East also kept investors cautious. 

The street paid no heed towards credit rating agency, India Ratings and Research’s (Ind-Ra) latest report stating that the corporate credit profile continued its robust performance in first half of the current financial year (H1FY24), third year in a row. Among the sectors which witnessed positive rating actions are infrastructure asset operators, largely from the renewable power sector. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, even after China's gross domestic product expanded an annualized 4.9 percent on year in the third quarter of 2023. That beat forecasts for a gain of 4.4 percent but was still down from the 6.3 percent growth in the second quarter.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 65977.95, down by 450.14 points or 0.68% after trading in a range of 65909.73 and 66475.27. There were 5 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell by 0.86%, while Small cap index was down by 0.55%.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 0.27% and Auto up by 0.01%, while Power down by 1.23%, PSU down by 1.10%, Bankex down by 1.05%, Utilities down by 1.05% and Realty down by 0.97% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 1.56%, Tata Motors up by 0.72%, Infosys up by 0.30%, Maruti Suzuki up by 0.21% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.07%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 2.02%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.71%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.32%, HDFC Bank down by 1.26% and ICICI Bank down by 1.25% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) has said that India should not agree to free cross-border data flows under the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) with the UK as ownership of national data is crucial for developing public services. It added that India should never agree to binding commitments in these areas as it will lock the country's policy space in the future.

GTRI said this FTA marks a transformative shift in India's approach to trade, moving its focus from the east to the west, and broadening its scope to include non-trade matters such as environment, labour, gender, digital trade, and data governance. The talks between the two countries for the agreement are at an advanced stage and both the sides are expected to announce the conclusion of talks by the end of this month.

The think-tank said subjects like labour standards, gender, environment, and digital trade have been included in the FTA on the UK's request and India should make domestic rules/standards before taking commitments in the agreement on these matters. It also said that India should not agree to stop preferential treatment to domestic suppliers in the government procurement chapter of the trade pact as allowing the UK companies to sell goods and services to the government here would bring British firms at par with domestic entities. On the other hand, it said Indian firms face “a very” competitive and restricted government procurement market in the UK with little business prospects and due to this, India needs be conservative and careful.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19696.05, down by 115.45 points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 19673.55 and 19840.95. There were 12 stocks advancing against 37 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Cipla up by 3.44%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.97%, Sun Pharma up by 1.50%, Bajaj Auto up by 0.78% and Tata Motors up by 0.78%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 1.98%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.70%, LTIMindtree down by 1.64%, Apollo Hospital down by 1.40% and Tech Mahindra down by 1.39% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 36.78 points or 0.21% to 17,736.56, Taiwan Weighted lost 201.64 points or 1.23% to 16,440.91, Straits Times fell 27.82 points or 0.88% to 3,144.01 and Shanghai Composite weakened 25.36 points or 0.83% to 3,058.14, while KOSPI increased 2.43 points or 0.1% to 2,462.60 and Nikkei 225 surged 1.96 points or 0.01% to 32,042.25 Jakarta Composite gained 1.69 points or 0.02% to 6,941.31.