Bourses trade flat in late afternoon session

In volatile trading session, the Indian equity benchmarks traded near neutral lines in late afternoon session. Sensex traded marginally in red, while Nifty traded in green. The broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index traded with gains of above half a percent each. Traders remained on sidelines ahead of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and Consumer price index (CPI) data. Sector wise, coal sector remained in focus as India’s National Coal Index (NCI) has showed an increase of 3.83 points to 143.91 for the month of September 2023. In August, National Coal Index stood at 140.08. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red as investors digested hawkish comments from Fed officials on the future rate hike path and looked ahead to Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech for direction. European markets were trading mostly in green with insurance and financial stocks taking the biggest hit, as investors assessed economic data and corporate earnings ahead of the remarks from major central bank chiefs during the day.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 64902.03, down by 40.37 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 64851.06 and 65124.00. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index. 

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.60%, while Small cap index was up by 0.61%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.33%, Oil & Gas up by 1.17%, Industrials up by 0.93%, Healthcare up by 0.90% and Energy was up by 0.88%, while Bankex down by 0.44%, TECK down by 0.21%, Telecom down by 0.15% and IT was down by 0.09% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 2.06%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.10%, Titan Company up by 1.08%, JSW Steel up by 0.94% and ITC up by 0.80%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.33%, NTPC down by 0.98%, Infosys down by 0.84%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.65% and Tech Mahindra down by 0.65% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, amid broad based recovery and improved balance sheets, Credit rating agency, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report has maintained an overall stable rating outlook for large corporates for H2FY24. Of the rated portfolio, 82% has a stable outlook as on October 31, 2023, unchanged year on year.

As per the report, sectors like commodity chemicals, construction, textiles and tier-2 realty players remain vulnerable to a slowdown in growth and elevated costs, while road EPCs are seeing pockets of liquidity stress. The agency further noted that the recent geopolitical developments would remain key monitorable from both demand impact and commodity price perspective.  The agency also noted that household leverage has crept up and government deficits from counterparty perspective also remain fairly elevated.

Meanwhile, the agency, over the course of the past eight months, upgraded companies in the automobile, capital goods and tier-1 realty sectors on the back of strong order book in the domestic market and abating concerns on supply chain disruptions. The agency has taken negative rating actions on companies in sectors such as construction, pharmaceutical and cement, to reflect their deteriorating performance.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19421.95, up by 15.25 points or 0.08% after trading in a range of 19401.50 and 19464.40. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index. 

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 3.69%, Adani Ports up by 2.63%, Asian Paints up by 2.07%, Cipla up by 1.66% and Adani Enterprises up by 1.42%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.32%, NTPC down by 1.00%, Infosys down by 0.91%, Apollo Hospital down by 0.72% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.66% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 105.34 points or 0.33% to 32,166.48, Hang Seng declined 101.7 points or 0.58% to 17,568.46, Jakarta Composite plunged 56.78 points or 0.83% to 6,787.01, Straits Times fell 44.7 points or 1.41% to 3,129.11, KOSPI dropped 22.34 points or 0.92% to 2,421.62 and Shanghai Composite was down by 4.9 points or 0.16% to 3,052.37. On the flip side, Taiwan Weighted was up by 55.88 points or 0.33% to 16,740.83.

European markets were trading mostly in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 8.78 points or 0.12% to 7,418.82 and France’s CAC was up by 0.48 points or 0.01% to 6,986.71. On the flip side, Germany’s DAX was down by 23.1 points or 0.15% to 15,129.54.