Markets trade flat in early deals after positive start

Indian equity benchmarks started Tuesday trading session on a positive note tracking overnight gains on Wall Street coupled with sharp fall in crude oil prices. But, soon indices turned volatile owing to largely negative cues from Asian counterparts. Markets are trading flat in early deals amid foreign fund outflows. Foreign institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 1,761.86 crore on October 30, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange showed. Traders took note of a private report that India and the UK don’t expect a free trade agreement to be announced until after state elections in the South Asian nation are completed in December. There are still some differences around whether taxation will be included in a proposed investment protection pact, as well as the UK’s demand that tariffs be cut on electric vehicle exports to India.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets are trading lower as traders reacted to some downbeat Chinese manufacturing and non-manufacturing activity data. Ongoing concerns about the outlook for interest rates and the conflict in Middle East is weighing on the markets. Meanwhile, Japan posted a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 2.6 percent in September, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said. That was in line with expectations and down from 2.7 percent in August. Further, Bank of Japan (BoJ) left its key short-term rate unchanged at -0.1 per cent.

Back home, insurance industry related stocks are in focus with report that the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) said that insurance companies must provide their customers details on the basic features of the policy from January 01, 2024. In stock specific development, Tata Motors rallied after it won an arbitral award of Rs 765.78 crore plus interest as compensation for its investment in Singur, the erstwhile site for the production of the Nano.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 64116.86, up by 4.21 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 64021.92 and 64452.32. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.58%, while Small cap index was up by 0.75%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.51%, Telecom up by 0.62%, Utilities up by 0.55%, Basic Materials up by 0.43% and Consumer discretionary up by 0.42%, while TECK down by 0.28%, Metal down by 0.16%, IT down by 0.15%, Capital Goods down by 0.06% and Energy down by 0.04% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 1.01%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.85%, Asian Paints up by 0.79%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.66% and Bajaj Finserv up by 0.53%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 0.55%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.50%, Infosys down by 0.42%, Sun Pharma down by 0.39% and JSW Steel down by 0.36% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, India has called for starting formal negotiations by WTO members to reform the dispute settlement body of the World Trade Organisation, as the present informal deliberations are creating hindrance for several nations to participate in the talks. The formal talks on the subject can help in arriving at some kind of consensus by the 13th ministerial conference (MC), the highest decision making body of the WTO, in Abu Dhabi in February 2024. The issue came up for discussion during a recent meeting of senior officials of WTO members in Geneva last week. Certain countries flagged their concerns on the informal system of talks.

India stated that ‘if you want to maintain the WTO's credibility, we need to talk on this’. WTO's dispute settlement body (DSB) is one of the important arms of the 164-member Geneva-based body. Besides monitoring global exports and imports related rules, it adjudicates trade disputes between the member countries. The US has started engaging in DSB reforms, but in an informal setting. In this setting, not all members get the opportunity to talk. There are no interpretation facilities in those informal meetings.

Many WTO member countries have one or two delegates only in Geneva. So, they get busy in different meetings like general council and because of that, they are not able to participate in the deliberations on DSB reforms. So, there are some concerns. It was flagged in the break-away sessions' meeting in Geneva recently. Normally in the WTO, talks through a formal process involves submissions of papers on the subject for discussions among all the members. The way the US is engaging on the subject, it looks like they will do something like coming up with some formal text for discussion on the issue.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19134.65, down by 6.25 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 19110.55 and 19233.70. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI Life Insurance up by 2.30%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.38%, BPCL up by 1.28%, Tata Motors up by 0.95% and Apollo Hospital up by 0.90%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 1.11%, Sun Pharma down by 1.10%, Britannia Industries down by 0.89%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.82% and LTIMindtree down by 0.65% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 308.85 points or 1.77% to 17,097.51, Taiwan Weighted lost 118.55 points or 0.73% to 16,031.13, Jakarta Composite plunged 50.35 points or 0.75% to 6,685.54, KOSPI dropped 27.14 points or 1.17% to 2,283.41, Shanghai Composite fell 11.58 points or 0.38% to 3,009.97 and Straits Times was down by 0.7 points or 0.02% to 3,063.59, while Nikkei 225 surged 230.66 points or 0.75% to 30,927.62.