Sensex, Nifty remain under pressure

Indian equity benchmarks remained under pressure in early afternoon deals, impacted by negative cues from other Asian markets, amid concerns about interest rates and the outlook for economic growth. Worries about the conflict in the Middle East amidst reports of an imminent ground invasion of Gaza by Israel also weighed on the markets. Domestic sentiments were cautious amid private reports that Indian consumer spending during this year's festival season will be slightly better than in 2022, but probably not enough to ramp up the speed of what is already the world's fastest-growing major economy.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, as Singapore's industrial production continued to decline in September, though the pace of decrease has eased considerably since August. The data from the Economic Development Board revealed that industrial production dropped 2.1 percent year-on-year in September, following an 11.6 percent plunge in the prior month. Production has been falling since October last year.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 63241.67, down by 807.39 points or 1.26% after trading in a range of 63119.21 and 63774.16. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell by 1.60%, while Small cap index was down by 1.50%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty down by 1.98%, PSU down by 1.71%, Healthcare down by 1.69%, Industrials down by 1.69% and Auto down by 1.62%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE.

The few gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 1.50%, HCL Tech up by 0.33%, ITC up by 0.20% and Indusind Bank up by 0.12%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 3.51%, Tech Mahindra down by 3.05%, Bajaj Finance down by 2.87%, Nestle down by 2.26% and HDFC Bank down by 2.19% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet has approved a memorandum of cooperation (MoC) between India and Japan on a Semiconductor Supply Chain Partnership. The memorandum of cooperation between the two countries was signed in July. Japan has become the second Quad partner after the US to sign an agreement with India for the joint development of the semiconductor ecosystem and maintain the resilience of its global supply chain.

The MoC intends to strengthen cooperation between India and Japan towards enhancement of semiconductor supply chain, recognising the importance of semiconductor for the advancement of industries and digital technologies. The MoC will come into effect from the date of signature of the parties and remain in force for a period of five years.

Both G2G and B2B Bilateral Cooperation on opportunities to advance resilient semiconductor supply chains and leverage complementary strengths. In view of synergies and complementarities between the two nations, the ‘IndiaJapan Digital Partnership’ (IJDP) was launched during the visit of the prime minister to Japan in October 2018 to boost cooperation and new initiatives within the scope of cooperation in science and technology and information and communications technologies. 

Based on the ongoing IJDP and IndiaJapan Industrial Competitiveness Partnership (IJICP), this MoC on JapanIndia Semiconductor Supply Chain Partnership would further broaden and deepen the cooperation in the field of electronics ecosystem. Japan is among the top five countries to have a semiconductor ecosystem, with around 100 semiconductor manufacturing plants.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 18868.15, down by 254.00 points or 1.33% after trading in a range of 18849.15 and 19041.70. There were 4 stocks advancing against 46 stocks declining on the index.

The few gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 1.52%, HCL Tech up by 0.33%, Indusind Bank up by 0.16% and ITC up by 0.02%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 3.62%, Tech Mahindra down by 3.05%, Bajaj Finance down by 2.93%, Adani Enterprises down by 2.56% and UPL down by 2.56% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 56.06 points or 0.33% to 17,029.27, Taiwan Weighted lost 285.15 points or 1.77% to 16,073.74, Jakarta Composite plunged 86.51 points or 1.28% to 6,747.88, Straits Times fell 16.05 points or 0.52% to 3,062.73, KOSPI dropped 64.09 points or 2.79% to 2,299.08 and Nikkei 225 slipped 668.14 points or 2.18% to 30,601.78, while  Shanghai Composite strengthened 14.76 points or 0.49% to 2,988.87.