Sensex, Nifty off day’s highs in early noon deals

Indian equity benchmarks came off day’s high points in early afternoon deals, but continued their trade in green on the back of positive cues from other Asian markets along with heavy buying at Realty and Telecom counters. Sentiments remained upbeat as the government's Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections climbed 13 percent year-on-year in October to Rs 1.72 lakh crore, second-highest revenue collection ever. Some gains got trimmed as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest monthly data report on ‘India’s International Trade in Services for the Month of September 2023’ has showed that India's services exports declined by 2.7 per cent year-on-year to $ 28,429 million in September 2023. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green, after the monetary base in Japan jumped 9.0 percent on year in October, coming in at 670.612 trillion yen. That exceeded expectations for an increase of 5.6 percent, which would have been unchanged from the September reading. Banknotes in circulation rose 0.3 percent on year, while coins in circulation fell 2.4 percent. Current account balances jumped an annual 11.2 percent, including an 11.5 percent spike in reserve balances.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 63950.59, up by 359.26 points or 0.56% after trading in a range of 63815.35 and 64202.64. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose by 1.00%, while Small cap index was up by 0.81%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.76%, Telecom up by 1.73%, PSU up by 1.31%, Oil & Gas up by 1.26% and Utilities up by 1.17%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma up by 1.81%, Indusind Bank up by 1.76%, TCS up by 1.24%, Infosys up by 1.12% and NTPC up by 1.10%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.12% and Tata Steel down by 0.09% were the only losers.

Meanwhile, Indian Railways have earned Rs 95,929.30 crore freight revenue during April October 2023 as against Rs 92,345.27 crore over the last year, an improvement of around Rs 3584.03 crore. During the period, freight loading of 887.25 metric tonnes (MT) was achieved by Indian Railways against last year’s loading of 855.64 MT, an improvement of approximate 31.61 MT.

During the month of October 2023, an originating freight loading of 129.03 MT has been achieved as against 118.95 MT in October last year, an improvement of approximately 8.47 per cent. Freight revenue of Rs 14,231.05 crore was earned in October 2023 as against Rs 13,353.81 crore last year, an improvement of about 6.57 per cent.

Indian Railways achieved loading of 64.82 MT in Coal, 14.81 MT in Iron Ore, 5.74 MT in Pig Iron and Finished Steel, 6.32 MT in Cement (Excl. Clinker), 4.77 MT in Clinker, 3.62 MT in Foodgrains, 5.72 MT in Fertilizers, 4.35 MT in Mineral Oil, 7.15 MT in Containers and 8.55 MT in Balance Other Goods during October, 2023. 
Following the Mantra, ‘Hungry For Cargo’, Indian Railways has made sustained efforts to improve the ease of doing business as well as improve the service delivery at competitive prices. The customer centric approach and work of Business Development Units backed up by agile policy making helped Railways towards this significant achievement. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19098.40, up by 109.25 points or 0.58% after trading in a range of 19064.15 and 19175.25. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Enterprises up by 2.62%, Britannia up by 1.77%, Indusind Bank up by 1.69%, Apollo Hospital up by 1.66% and Sun Pharma up by 1.59%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.26%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.86%, Tata Steel down by 0.13% and Bajaj Finserv down by 0.03% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng advanced 95.13 points or 0.56% to 17,196.91, Taiwan Weighted added 358.39 points or 2.19% to 16,396.95, Jakarta Composite gained 132.99 points or 2% to 6,775.41, Straits Times rose 1.56 points or 0.05% to 3,078.33, KOSPI increased 41.56 points or 1.77% to 2,343.12 and Nikkei 225 surged 348.24 points or 1.09% to 31,949.89, while Shanghai Composite weakened 13.67 points or 0.45% to 3,009.41.