Indices trade flat with negative bias in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made cautious start on Monday tracking mixed cues from Asian counterparts. Domestic indices are trading flat with negative bias in early deals amid weakness in banking and financial stocks. Traders were cautious as S&P Global Ratings said the hike in risk weights for consumer loans like personal loan and credit cards may shave-off tier I capital of banks by 60 basis points, hit loan growth, and squeeze the nonbank sector in particular. S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Geeta Chugh said the finance companies will be worse affected as their incremental bank borrowing costs will surge, in addition to the capital adequacy impact. Some concern also came in as the Reserve Bank said India’s forex kitty decreased by $462 million to $590.321 billion for the week ended November 10. In the previous reporting week, the overall reserves had increased by $4.672 billion to $590.783 billion.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mixed after China's central bank left its benchmark lending rates unchanged. Meanwhile, In the Middle East, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. said he is hopeful a deal for the release of a significant number of hostages will be reached ‘in the coming days’. Back home, gems & jewellery industry stocks are in limelight as the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) data showed that India's overall gems and jewellery exports declined by 11.49 per cent to Rs 22,873.19 crore ($2,748.01 million) in October. In stock specific development, Adani Group stocks are in focus after an application was filed in the Supreme Court seeking contempt proceedings against capital market regulator SEBI in the Adani-Hindenburg matter.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 65698.53, down by 96.20 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 65665.58 and 65823.36. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.30%, while Small cap index was up by 0.61%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.89%, Realty up by 0.76%, TECK up by 0.56%, Healthcare up by 0.55% and PSU up by 0.45%, while Capital Goods down by 0.33%, Bankex down by 0.29%, Consumer Durables down by 0.23%, Auto down by 0.21%, FMCG down by 0.01% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HCL Technologies up by 1.44%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.14%, NTPC up by 1.01%, Wipro up by 0.51% and Infosys up by 0.46%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.08%, Axis Bank down by 0.88%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.77%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.64% and Bajaj Finance down by 0.50% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran has said startups will play an important role in helping India become the third largest economy in the world. Nageswaran said that tier-2 and 3 cities, including Kerala's capital, have become game-changers in helping startups flourish in the country due to improvements in infrastructure and supportive policies of the government. He said that India was the fifth largest economy on course to become the third largest in a few years.

He said ‘In fact, I will say 7-in-7 is the buzz slogan, that is $7 trillion economy in seven years. $7 trillion economy size by 2030 is possible if India maintains its present growth trajectory, and in that journey startup entrepreneurs are going to play an important role’. He was of the view that the active participation of startups in India in developing business models on the foundation of expanding physical and digital infrastructure will continue to generate efficiency, revenue and economic returns for the country.

He said ‘the last decade has seen an exceptional transformation in the startup landscape in India, which has emerged as the third largest ecosystem globally, with over 1.12 lakh startups presently recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) across 763 districts. Among them, more than 110 are unicorns with a total valuation of around $350 billion’.

The CEA further said that the country ranks second in innovation quality. He said that innovation in India was not just limited to certain sectors as startups were solving problems in 56 industrial sectors, with 13 per cent of them from IT services, nine per cent from health and life sciences, seven per cent from education, five per cent from agriculture and five per cent from food and beverages.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19,720.25, down by 11.55 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 19,707.25 and 19,752.60. There were 27 stocks advancing against 22 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Divi's Laboratories up by 2.85%, Coal India up by 1.51%, LTIMindtree up by 1.31%, NTPC up by 1.23% and HCL Technologies up by 1.10%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.04%, Axis Bank down by 0.72%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.70%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.67% and Adani Enterprises down by 0.57%, were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Hang Seng surged 286.17 points or 1.64% to 17,740.36, KOSPI rose 22.89 points or 0.93% to 2,492.74, Shanghai Composite strengthened 15.85 points or 0.52% to 3,070.22 and Jakarta Composite was up by 12.19 points or 0.17% to 6,989.86. However, Nikkei 225 slipped 177.69 points or 0.53% to 33,407.51, Straits Times fell 15.02 points or 0.48% to 3,109.65 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 8.93 points or 0.05% to 17,200.02.