Markets trade lower in early deals on profit booking

Indian equity benchmarks made cautious start on Thursday tracking losses across global markets ahead of Friday's jobs data in the US. Soon, markets slipped below neutral lines and extended their losses in early deals as investors booked profits in recent outperformers. Investors also avoided taking any long position ahead of the RBI policy announcements by Governor Shaktikanta Das on December 8. A private report expects the repo rate to remain unchanged and sees RBI maintaining a hawkish tone. Some cautiousness also came in amid report that the government has sought parliamentary approval for an additional net spending of Rs 58,378 crore in the first batch of supplementary demand for grants in this financial year. 

However, downside remained capped amid a sharp fall in crude oil prices overnight. Traders took some encouragement as Industry chamber CII expects the country's economy to grow at 6.8% in the current fiscal and accelerate to 7 per cent in 2024-25, driven by the government's continued focus on infrastructure development and promotion of ease of doing business. On the sectoral front, banking stocks are in focus after Moody's Investors Service issued a negative outlook for global banks in 2024, attributing the negativity to the repercussions of central banks' tightening of monetary policies. In stock specific development, Paytm cracked on its plan to reduce below Rs 50,000-loan disbursements after RBI's tightening of consumer credit norms.

On the global front, all the Asian markets are trading in red as traders reacted to some economic data emerging from the region, including from Australia and China. China’s exports rose 0.5% from a year earlier to $291.9 billion, a sign that demand may be picking up after months, but imports fell 0.6%, to $223.5 billion, after they climbed 3% in October. Australia posted a seasonally adjusted merchandise trade surplus of A$7.129 billion in October.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 69430.82, down by 222.91 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 69320.53 and 69695.33. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.09%, while Small cap index was up by 0.16%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 1.87%, Power up by 1.56%, Consumer Disc up by 0.45%, Realty up by 0.37% and Auto up by 0.24%, while FMCG down by 0.68%, Telecom down by 0.50%, TECK down by 0.39%, Bankex down by 0.35% and Metal down by 0.33% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 1.17%, Power Grid up by 1.11%, Ultratech Cement up by 0.98%, NTPC up by 0.75% and Maruti Suzuki up by 0.73%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.96%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.85%, ICICI Bank down by 1.00%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.77% and Infosys down by 0.60% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, taking into consideration the government's continued focus on infrastructure development and promotion of ease of doing business, industry chamber -- the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) expects India’s economy to grow at 6.8 per cent in the current fiscal and accelerate to 7 per cent in 2024-25. CII President R Dinesh has said even on a conservative basis, the expected gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 6.8 per cent will be more than the 6.5-6.7 per cent estimated earlier by the industry body.

Regarding growth projections, the CII President said ‘In the beginning, we had said 6.5-6.7 per cent. Now, actually, we are saying it is going to be 6.8 per cent for this year, and we are looking at 7 per cent for next year. Obviously, the first half has given the comfort for 6.8 per cent. In fact, I would say it is a conservative number because if you look at what has happened in the first half, we are being conservative here’.

According to him, India is in a ‘sweet spot’, owing to various reasons, including the government's focus on infrastructure and the push for ease of doing business. India's economy recorded a growth of 7.7 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal ended in September. About the possibility of an interest rate cut by the RBI in its upcoming bi-monthly monetary policy review, he said ‘We are not asking for that (interest rate cut) at all because we don't believe that it's the right time to ask because inflation is above the benchmark (4 per cent), which they (RBI) have set for themselves’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 20868.95, down by 68.75 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 20850.80 and 20941.25. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports & SEZ up by 1.67%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.56%, Asian Paints up by 1.15%, Power Grid up by 1.07% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.02%. On the flip side, ONGC down by 2.53%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.09%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.96%, ICICI Bank down by 1.07% and Apollo Hospital down by 1.04% were the top losers.

All Asian markets are trading lower; Nikkei 225 slipped 558.67 points or 1.67% to 32,887.23, Hang Seng declined 241.07 points or 1.46% to 16,222.19, Taiwan Weighted lost 59.07 points or 0.34% to 17,301.65, Jakarta Composite dropped 28.11 points or 0.4% to 7,059.29, Straits Times fell 27.79 points or 0.9% to 3,059.45, Shanghai Composite weakened 8.60 points or 0.29% to 2,960.33 and KOSPI was down by 0.18 points or 0.01% to 2,495.20.