Recovery witnesses in Indian markets in early afternoon deals

A sustain buying helped Indian equity benchmarks to stage recovery in early afternoon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty trading near neutral lines, despite weak cues from other Asian markets. Traders got support, after Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said that aspirational Young India will spur the future growth of India. During 'DPIIT-CII National Conference on Ease of Doing Business', the minister said that the foundational economic reforms undertaken by the Government has ensured that India moved from fragile 5 to top 5 economies in the last 5 years. However, there were cautiousness among investors due to the hawkish remarks by US Fed Chair Jerome Powell that the central bank will not hesitate to resume raising interest rates if it becomes appropriate. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading lower, after a measure of the public assessment of the current situation of the Japanese economy weakened for the third straight month. The monthly survey results from the Cabinet Office showed that the Eco Watchers current conditions index fell to 49.5 in October from 49.9 in the previous month. The expected reading was 50.1. This was the third consecutive fall. A reading below 50 indicates that more respondents reported worsening conditions than improving.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 64808.27, down by 23.93 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 64580.95 and 64808.74. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.15%, while Small cap indexwas up by 0.40%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 0.95%, Capital Goods up by 0.67%, Industrials up by 0.61%, Power up by 0.61% and Utilities up by 0.58%, while TECK down by 0.59%, IT down by 0.53%, Consumer Durables down by 0.42%, Oil & Gas down by 0.30% and Auto down by 0.12% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 1.03%, JSW Steel up by 0.87%, Tech Mahindra up by 0.63%, Ultratech Cement up by 0.61% and Bajaj Finance up by 0.52%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 1.11%, Titan down by 1.03%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.98%, Infosys down by 0.88% and TCS down by 0.69% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, SEBI’s whole-time member Ashwani Bhatia has said that India's rapid economic growth needs to be accompanied with the transition to a sustainable economy and stressed that financial markets will play a critical role in promoting sustainable finance. He said countries including India, have made a number of important commitments in the last few years to address climate change and moving to sustainable and inclusive economies.

Bhatia said ‘as regulators, we are putting in place holistic regulatory framework covering aspects of financing or disclosures and transparency’. He said that this transition will be ‘complicated’ and all the stakeholders -- investors, companies, regulators and civil society -- will have to coordinate and collaborate for its successful execution. Noting that during the last few years there is a search in global efforts to address climate change and moving to sustainable and inclusive economies, he said countries including India have made a number of important commitments in this space. But commitments to act must be underpinned by funding. 

Emphasizing that the capital market plays a key role in the country's economic development, he said 'as the country pivots to sustainable and inclusive growth, our market will play a critical role in promoting, sustainable finance'. He also said that Sebi has done considerable work on green bonds, adding that in 2017, it laid the regulatory framework for the bonds as an avenue for channelising funds in green activities.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19396.70, up by 1.40 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 19329.45 and 19396.85. There were 28 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were ONGC up by 1.01%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 0.99%, NTPC up by 0.92%, HDFC Life Insurance up by 0.90% and JSW Steel up by 0.87%. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.54%, Apollo Hospital down by 1.19%, HCL Tech. down by 1.09%, Titan down by 0.98% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.86% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading lower; Hang Seng declined 262.91 points or 1.5% to 17,248.38, Taiwan Weighted lost 62.98 points or 0.38% to 16,682.67, Jakarta Composite plunged 4.24 points or 0.06% to 6,833.99, Straits Times fell 26.47 points or 0.84% to 3,108.85, Shanghai Composite weakened 14.31 points or 0.47% to 3,038.97, KOSPI dropped 17.42 points or 0.72% to 2,409.66 and  Nikkei 225 slipped 78.35 points or 0.24% to 32,568.11.