Markets continue to trade below neutral lines in late afternoon session

The Indian benchmarks continued to trade below neutral lines in late afternoon session on selling in auto and financial services sectors' stocks. Traders remain worried with central bank's tighter rules for personal loans on lenders. Sector wise, gems and jewellery sector remained in limelight as 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. The gross exports stood at Rs 25,843.84 crore ($3,134.85 million) during October 2022. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green following small gains on Wall Street as investors grow increasingly optimistic that the Federal Reserve has come to the end of its interest rate hiking cycle. European markets were trading mostly in red after a strong week driven by aggressive bets of interest rate cuts, while gains in energy stocks were offset by weak healthcare as German drugs-to-pesticides group Bayer slid to a 12-year low. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 65698.99, down by 95.74 points or 0.15% after trading in a range of 65547.80 and 65844.01. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index declined 0.13%, while Small cap index was up by 0.26%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.67%, TECK up by 0.57%, Telecom up by 0.43%, Healthcare up by 0.28% and Bankex was up by 0.15%, while Capital Goods down by 0.75%, Auto down by 0.74%, Basic Materials down by 0.61%, Utilities down by 0.48% and Realty was down by 0.41% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HCL Tech up by 1.49%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.45%, Wipro up by 1.16%, Indusind Bank up by 0.59% and Tech Mahindra up by 0.56%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.96%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.62%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.42%, Ultratech Cement down by 1.37% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.95% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal has said that the Global South needs to discuss ways and means for countries to cooperate and act together to make our supply chains open, secure, trusted, stable, and equitable, thereby making them more resilient. At the 2nd Voice of Global South Summit, Union Minister said that the crisis of COVID-19 pandemic, impact of climate change and raging geopolitical tensions have disrupted and underscored the fragility of global supply chains. These disruptions have created monumental challenges of food and energy security, cost of living and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. 

He further said ‘Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rightly pointed out that most of the global challenges have not been created by the Global South, but they affect us more. Prime Minister has further underscored the need for our collective voice to be heard whenever and wherever the world looks for solutions’. Goyal pointed out that India successfully hosted the G 20 Summit in New Delhi in September, under the theme ‘one earth, one family and one future’ with the support of the Global South. 

He said ‘During its presidency, India made strong interventions in strengthening the voice of the global south including by making the African Union a permanent member of the grouping and by galvanising concrete action oriented, G 20 outcomes for the Global South, adding that the African Union will now be a part of the G 20 permanently. It is necessary to make further efforts to strengthen the voice of the global south and to come together for our and humanity's future.’ 

Meanwhile, this is the second time that India hosted the summit since January this year. The first summit was themed as ‘Energy Security and development: Roadmap to Prosperity’ and brought together 125 countries of the Global South to share their perspectives and priorities on a common platform in the run up to G20 Leaders Summit that was held in September 2023 in New Delhi.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19705.45, down by 26.35 points or 0.13% after trading in a range of 19670.50 and 19756.45. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Divi's Lab up by 2.26%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.51%, HCL Tech up by 1.45%, Wipro up by 1.19% and Tech Mahindra up by 0.69%. On the flip side, Adani Enterprises down by 2.53%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.99%, SBI Life down by 1.83%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.65% and Bajaj Finserv down by 1.52% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng advanced 323.88 points or 1.82% to 17,778.07, KOSPI increased 21.35 points or 0.86% to 2,491.20, Jakarta Composite gained 18.69 points or 0.27% to 6,996.36, Shanghai Composite strengthened 13.95 points or 0.45% to 3,068.32 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 1.52 points or 0.01% to 17,210.47. On the flip side, Straits Times fell 15.99 points or 0.51% to 3,108.68 and Nikkei 225 was down by 197.17 points or 0.59% to 33,388.03.

European markets were trading mostly in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 25.9 points or 0.35% to 7,478.35 and Germany’s DAX was down by 16.01 points or 0.1% to 15,903.15. On the flip side, France’s CAC was up by 14.51 points or 0.2% to 7,248.42.