Bourses continue to trade below neutral lines in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued to trade below neutral lines in late afternoon session. However, the broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index traded in green. Investors overlooked report that NITI Aayog vice chairman Suman Bery said India has potential to grow at 8 per cent as the country is labour-rich with enough institutional maturity of a functioning democracy. Meanwhile, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the digital economy will contribute 20 per cent of India's gross domestic product (GDP) by 2026. On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red as persistent concerns over a Chinese economic slowdown kept sentiment dull, while Japanese stocks fell sharply as Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda discussed options for a potential pivot from negative interest rates. European markets were trading lower led by travel and leisure stocks, as investors grew wary of an economic downturn following a slew of recent weak data out of Germany and keenly awaited a GDP print from the euro zone.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 69555.88, down by 97.85 points or 0.14% after trading in a range of 69320.53 and 69695.33. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 0.62%, while Small cap index was up by 0.37%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 3.53%, Power up by 2.80%, Consumer Durables up by 1.14%, Oil & Gas up by 1.13% and PSU was up by 0.95%, while FMCG down by 0.83%, Metal down by 0.50%, Capital Goods down by 0.32%, TECK down by 0.31% and IT was down by 0.18% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid up by 3.52%, NTPC up by 2.06%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.50%, Titan Company up by 0.96% and Maruti Suzuki up by 0.75%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.00%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.85%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.33%, Tata Steel down by 1.21% and ITC down by 1.07% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Som Parkash has said that the Startup India initiative was launched by the Government to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation, startups and encouraging investments in the startup ecosystem of the country. 

The Minister further noted that in order to meet these objectives, the Government unveiled an Action Plan for startups comprising of schemes and incentives envisaged to create a vibrant startup ecosystem in the country. The Action Plan comprises of 19 action items spanning across areas such as ‘Simpli?cation and hand holding’, ‘funding support and incentives’ and ‘industry-academia partnership and incubation’.

Som Parkash also underlined that for attaining speci?c objectives, various programs are implemented by the Government under the Startup India initiative. He said as a result of sustained e?orts, the Government has recognized 1,14,902 entities as startups as on October 31, 2023.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 20914.95, down by 22.75 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 20850.80 and 20941.25. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Power Grid up by 3.34%, Adani Ports up by 2.21%, NTPC up by 2.06%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.40% and Cipla up by 1.36%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 2.04%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.97%, Apollo Hospital down by 1.48%, ONGC down by 1.41% and Tata Steel down by 1.33% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 587.59 points or 1.79% to 32,858.31, Hang Seng declined 117.37 points or 0.72% to 16,345.89, Taiwan Weighted lost 81.98 points or 0.47% to 17,278.74, Straits Times fell 14.11 points or 0.46% to 3,073.13, KOSPI dropped 3.31 points or 0.13% to 2,492.07 and Shanghai Composite was down by 2.72 points or 0.09% to 2,966.21. On the flip side, Jakarta Composite was up by 22.75 points or 0.32% to 7,110.15.

European markets were trading lower; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 28.55 points or 0.38% to 7,486.83, France’s CAC fell 16.74 points or 0.23% to 7,419.25 and Germany’s DAX was down by 58.51 points or 0.35% to 16,597.93.