Domestic indices remain in red in late morning deals

Domestic equity indices remained in red and were trading with cut of over quarter a percent in late morning deals on account of selling by funds and retail investors. Weak cues from global markets weighed on the domestic sentiments. Traders were cautious amid rising bond yields, and geopolitical tensions. Depreciation in Indian rupee against dollar also weighed down sentiments. Rupee weakened by 5 paise to 87.17 against the dollar at the Inter-bank Foreign Exchange market on account of increased demand for the American currency from importers and banks. Besides, cautiousness also prevailed in the markets as the Reserve Bank of India’s data (October 2023 bulletin) said net foreign direct investment (FDI) in India, inflows minus outflows, declined sharply in April-August this year to $2.99 billion from $18.03 billion in the same period last year.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading in red following the broadly negative cues from global markets on Friday, with the US Fed signaling rates will remain higher for longer than previously anticipated. Back home, all the sectoral indices on the BSE were trading in red led by Telecom, Realty, Metal, Industrials and Utilities.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 65227.72, down by 169.90 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 65162.92 and 65453.92. There were 7 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 1.10%, while Small cap index down by 2.23%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom down by 2.30%, Realty down by 2.05%, Metal down by 1.57%, Industrials down by 1.53% and Utilities down by 1.51%, while there were no losers.  

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 0.99%, ICICI Bank up by 0.75%, Hindustan Unilever up by 0.45%, Nestle up by 0.39% and Ultratech Cement up by 0.26%. On the flip side, Tata Steel down by 1.54%, Tata Motors down by 1.39%, TCS down by 1.10%, NTPC down by 0.95% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.95% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, a Central Electricity Authority (CEA) in its latest report has said that as many as 86 thermal power plants in the country, including six imported dry fuel-based, had critical coal stock levels as of October 18, 2023. The power plants are labelled as having a critical coal stock situation, where the dry fuel is less than 25 per cent of the normative level. CEA monitors 181 coal-based thermal power plants in the country with a total installed generation capacity of 206 GW.

As per the report, 148 non-pithead domestic coal-based power plants with a total capacity of about 149 GW had 29 per cent less dry fuel stocks than the normative (or ideal) levels. These 148 plants had about 12.77 million tonnes of coal against the normative level of 43.53 million tonnes as of October 18, 2023.

However, the situation was better at 18 domestic pithead plants where dry fuel stock was 81 per cent of the normative levels. These 18 plants have a total power generation capacity of about 40 GW. The experts are of the view that generally the dry fuel stock situation is not often critical at pithead plants as these are located near coal mines. The non-pithead plants are those where the dry fuel is transported from far-flung places where coal mines are located. The overall dry fuel stock situation was also better at 15 imported coal-based power plants monitored by the CEA, where stocks were 52 per cent of the normative levels. These 15 imported coal-based plants have a total generation capacity of 17 GW.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19,479.25, down by 63.40 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 19,556.85 and 19,460.00. There were 09 stocks advancing against 41 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finance up by 0.98%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories up by 0.96%, ICICI Bank up by 0.66%, Nestle India 0.54% and HDFC Life Insurance Company 0.42%. On the flip side, Adani Enterprises down by 2.41%, Adani Ports down by 1.81%, LTImindtree 1.69%, Tata Steel down by 1.62% and Tata Motors 1.39% were the top losers on Nifty.

All Asian markets were trading lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 183.33 points or 0.59% to 31,076.03, Taiwan Weighted lost 188.5 points or 1.15% to 16,252.22, Straits Times fell 7.33 points or 0.24% to 3,069.36, KOSPI dropped 19.46 points or 0.82% to 2,355.54, Shanghai Composite weakened 24.94 points or 0.84% to 2,958.12 and Jakarta Composite plunged 86.21 points or 1.27% to 6,762.96.