Sustain selling drags markets near day’s lows

A sustain selling over the Dalal Street dragged Indian equity benchmarks near their intraday low points in early afternoon deals, impacted by weak global cues amid rising bond yields and geopolitical tensions. Traders got cautious, after Shashanka Bhide, one of the three external members on the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), said that trade-related measures to improve domestic supply can help cool down food inflation only in the short run. The street failed to take a relief with the Retirement fund body, Employees' Provident Fund Organisation’s (EPFO) latest ‘Provisional Estimate of Net Payroll’ data report showing that India created 1699140 new jobs in the month of August 2023 as against revised figure of 1686224 in July 2023.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading lower, after Singapore's consumer price inflation rose slightly in September, while core inflation decelerated more than expected. The data released by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Ministry of Trade and Industry revealed that consumer prices posted an annual growth of 4.1 percent after climbing 4.0 percent in August. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 65190.10, down by 207.52 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 65143.53 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 fell 1.29%, while Small cap index was down by 2.48%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom down by 2.45%, Realty down by 1.90%, Utilities down by 1.89%, Industrials down by 1.80% and Basic Materials down by 1.71%, while there are no gainers on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 0.93%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.61%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.49%, Nestle up by 0.15% and Reliance Industries up by 0.07%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.56%, Tata Steel down by 1.46%, NTPC down by 1.39%, Wipro down by 1.16% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.14% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said that monetary policy has to remain extra alert to be ready to act as and when warranted to preserve the hard earned macroeconomic stability. He said the fundamental goal of the monetary policy is to align inflation with the 4 per cent target and anchor inflation expectations.  

Das had cautioned that recurring incidences of large and overlapping supply side shocks bring with them the risks of generalisation of inflation impulses, possible loss of monetary policy credibility and de-anchoring of inflation expectations. 

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in its last meeting has decided to keep the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 6.50 per cent, for the fourth time in a row, in a bid to keep retail inflation under check.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19,460.10, down by 82.55 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 2535.58 and 2535.58. There were 9 stocks advancing against 41 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ICICI Bank up by 0.85%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories up by 0.53%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.53%, Apollo Hospitals up by 0.45% and M&M up by 0.37%, while LTImindtree down by 3.47%, Adani Enterprises down by 2.79%, Adani Ports down by 2.14%, Hindalco down by 2.03% and UPL down by 1.75% were the top losers on Nifty. 

Asian markets were trading lower; Taiwan Weighted lost 189.36 points or 1.17% to 16,251.36, Jakarta Composite plunged 85.15 points or 1.24% to 6,764.02, Straits Times fell 18.32 points or 0.6% to 3,058.37, Shanghai Composite weakened 43.77 points or 1.47% to 2,939.29, KOSPI dropped 17.98 points or 0.76% to 2,357.02 and Nikkei 225 slipped 259.81 points or 0.84% to 30,999.55.