Benchmarks continue to trade higher in late morning session

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade higher in late morning session, on account of broad based buying in blue chip counters amid positive Asian cues. Sentiments remained positive as wholesale price inflation remained in the negative territory for the seventh month in a row in October at (-) 0.52 per cent on easing prices of food items. Some support also came with SBI’s report stating that India's unemployment rate is at a record low and India's labour market is undergoing a deep structural transformation with self-entrepreneurship across all echelons and higher educational attainment emerging as key enablers’. Traders also took a note of report that Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has revealed that the central government is poised to introduce a comprehensive e-commerce policy and rules. On the global front, Asian markets are trading higher on the back of softer-than-expected US inflation data, fostering optimism about a potential conclusion to the ongoing rate-hiking cycle in the world's largest economy.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 65538.07, up by 604.20 points or 0.93% after trading in a range of 65373.50 and 65578.95. There were 24 stocks advancing against 6 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.75%, while Small cap index was up by 1.08%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.36%, IT up by 1.89%, Metal up by 1.72%, TECK up by 1.62% and Energy up by 1.29%, while there were losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tech Mahindra up by 3.51%, Infosys up by 1.91%, Wipro up by 1.82%, JSW Steel up by 1.77% and Tata Steel up by 1.69%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corporation down by 0.89%, Sun Pharma down by 0.18%, Nestle down by 0.16%, Asian Paints down by 0.10% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.07% were the top losers. 

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in its latest report has said that as many as 417 infrastructure projects, each entailing an investment of Rs 150 crore or more, have been hit by cost overruns of more than Rs 4.77 lakh crore in September 2023.  It said out of 1,763 projects, 417 reported cost overruns and as many as 842 projects were delayed.

According to the report, total original cost of implementation of the 1,763 projects was Rs 24,86,402.70 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 29,64,345.13 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs 4,77,942.43 crore (19.22 per cent of original cost). The expenditure incurred on these projects till September 2023 is Rs 15,44,600.67 crore, which is 52.11 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects. However, it stated that the number of delayed projects decreased to 617, if delay is calculated on the basis of the latest schedule of completion.

Further, it said that for 298 projects neither the year of commissioning nor the tentative gestation period has been reported. Out of the 842 delayed projects, 194 have overall delays in the range of 1-12 months, 190 have been delayed for 13-24 months, 323 projects for 25-60 months and 123 projects have been delayed for more than 60 months. The average time overrun in these 842 delayed projects is 36.94 months.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19631.65, up by 188.10 points or 0.97% after trading in a range of 19579.65 and 19653.35. There were 45 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 4.34%, Tech Mahindra up by 3.52%, ONGC up by 2.68%, LTIMindtree up by 2.56% and Eicher Motors up by 2.11%. On the flip side, Power Grid Corporation down by 0.82%, Britannia Inds down by 0.39%, Sun Pharma down by 0.25%, Nestle down by 0.20% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.05% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading higher; Nikkei 225 surged 753.47 points or 2.3% to 33,449.40, Taiwan Weighted added 160.12 points or 0.95% to 17,075.83, Hang Seng advanced 491.55 points or 2.75% to 17,888.41, Straits Times rose 15.53 points or 0.5% to 3,120.19, KOSPI increased 51.11 points or 2.1% to 2,484.36, Jakarta Composite gained 103.84 points or 1.51% to 6,965.90 and Shanghai Composite strengthened 13.78 points or 0.45% to 3,069.85.