Benchmarks remain in red in late morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks remained in red in late morning deals, due to weak trends in global markets and soaring crude oil prices. Foreign fund outflows also weighed on investor sentiments. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 1,093.47 crore on Thursday. However, losses remain capped as some support came with International Monetary Fund (IMF) stating that India has room to absorb additional expenditure towards subsidies and rural unemployment programme without raising its fiscal deficit target from 5.9% set for the current financial year. Traders took a note of World Bank chief economist Indermit Gill’s statement that middle-income countries like India need to make policies based on reliable data to get into the league of high-income nations in next 3-4 decades as achieving sustainable growth will become harder. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly lower as investors reacted to Fed Chair Jerome Powell's cautious remarks on further rate hikes and a surge in oil prices to over the $90-a barrel mark amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 65433.47, down by 195.77 points or 0.30% after trading in a range of 65308.61 and 65555.14. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.38%, while Small cap index was up by 0.17%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas down by 1.06%, FMCG down by 0.83%, Metal down by 0.82%, Energy down by 0.75% and PSU down by 0.70%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were Nestle up by 2.11%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.91%, Indusind Bank up by 0.63%, TCS up by 0.47% and Sun Pharma up by 0.26%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corporation down by 2.16%, ITC down by 1.98%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.82%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.46% and HCL Technologies down by 1.33% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its article on 'State of the Economy' published in the latest RBI Bulletin, in India, has said that a moderation in retail inflation in September from its peak in July has bolstered macroeconomic fundamentals even as global growth lost pace from the third quarter. According to the article, a broad-based gaining of momentum is discernible in high frequency indicators. Deleveraging and higher capacity utilisation have enabled capital-heavy industries to gain traction.

It stated the Indian rupee (INR) is exhibiting low volatility. Moreover, it mentioned retail inflation declined to a three-month low of 5.02 per cent annually in September on account of moderation in vegetables and fuel prices, and back within the Reserve Bank's comfort level. The inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 6.83 per cent in August and 7.41 per cent in September 2022. In July, inflation touched a peak of 7.44 per cent.

Further, it said that global growth lost pace from the third quarter of this year on the back of weak manufacturing activity and tight financial conditions in advanced economies even as several emerging market economies posted growth surprises. It added surging yields and soaring crude oil prices have emerged as proximate risks to global growth. RBI said the views expressed in the article are of the authors and do not represent the views of the central bank.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19557.05, down by 67.65 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 19518.70 and 19593.80. There were 12 stocks advancing against 38 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Nestle up by 2.09%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.90%, Indusind Bank up by 0.61%, TCS up by 0.43% and SBI Life Insurance up by 0.29%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corporation down by 2.16%, ITC down by 2.08%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.84%, Tech Mahindra down by 1.55% and Cipla down by 1.33% were the top losers. 

Asian markets are trading mostly lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 85.6 points or 0.27% to 31,345.02, Taiwan Weighted lost 0.19 points or 0% to 16,452.54, Hang Seng declined 70.07 points or 0.41% to 17,225.82, Straits Times fell 1.95 points or 0.06% to 3,097.65, KOSPI dropped 29.62 points or 1.23% to 2,386.18 and Shanghai Composite weakened 8.17 points or 0.27% to 2,997.22.

On the flip side, Jakarta Composite gained 7.95 points or 0.12% to 6,854.38.