Sensex, Nifty trade in red during early noon deals

In a volatile session, Indian equity benchmarks were trading in red during early afternoon session, impacted by selling at Oil & Gas and Power counters, despite positive cues from other Asian markets. Traders were cautious, as the International Monetary Fund's official warned that fragmentation in the global economy and clear shifts in underlying bilateral trade could trigger a new Cold War given the conflict in Ukraine and U.S.-China tensions. On the sectoral front, auto industry stocks were in watch, as industry body, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) in its latest report has showed that domestic passenger vehicle wholesales rose by around 4 per cent year on year to 3,34,130 units in November 2023 from 3,22,268 units in same month last year, on the back of robust demand for utility vehicles.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading higher, even as producer prices in Japan were up 0.2 percent on month in November. That was in line with expectations following the upwardly revised 0.3 percent contraction in October (originally -0.4 percent). On a yearly basis, producer prices rose 0.3 percent - exceeding expectations for 0.1 percent following the upwardly revised 0.9 percent gain in the previous month (originally 0.8 percent).

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 69864.99, down by 63.54 points or 0.09% after trading in a range of 69814.34 and 70033.64. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose by 0.01%, while Small cap index was up by 0.31%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Basic Materials up by 0.70%, Metal up by 0.66%, IT up by 0.47%, TECK up by 0.23% and FMCG up by 0.15%, while Oil & Gas down by 1.13%, Power down by 0.93%, Energy down by 0.89%, Utilities down by 0.83% and Realty down by 0.77% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Ultratech Cement up by 2.71%, JSW Steel up by 1.37%, TCS up by 1.25%, Wipro up by 1.24% and ITC up by 0.93%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 1.28%, Titan down by 1.26%, NTPC down by 0.99%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.86% and Indusind Bank down by 0.77% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, S Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity) has said that the government's focus is now on boosting electronics component manufacturing in the country and new scheme for the same is in works. He noted that 99 per cent local mobile phone market is being met through domestic manufacturing, and for next phase of growth companies need to export by improving competitiveness and enhancing value addition. He said ‘If our competitiveness needs to keep getting better then the challenge really is to not just rely on about 10 to 15 per cent of the value addition to assembly units in the country but to look at what else we can do, how can we move up in the value chain?’.

Krishnan said no one country is ever going to own the entire value chain and it's only going to be a portion of the value chain that India needs to target. He also said ‘probably in India's case, the best case will probably be China which has about 40 to 45 per cent of the entire value chain, which is manufactured in China. We could possibly thinking of about somewhere in the same region of 35 to 40 per cent of the entire value chain’. 

The secretary further said the government is working on a second version of incentive scheme for electronics component Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS). Earlier MSIPS (modified special incentive package scheme) was launched. Now SPECS 1.0 has been implemented for components. He added that the industry should also look at producing capital equipment required for electronics manufacturing locally. He also said that the government is also revising schemes for research and development promotion and is looking forward to engaging with industry on the same.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 20986.75, down by 10.35 points or 0.05% after trading in a range of 20975.05 and 21037.90. There were 25 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 2.83%, Hindalco up by 2.39%, HDFC Life Insurance up by 1.93%, Bajaj Auto up by 1.65% and Hero MotoCorp up by 1.50%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 3.63%, Apollo Hospital down by 1.57%, Eicher Motors down by 1.51%, Sun Pharma down by 1.34% and Titan down by 1.25% were the top losers.

All Asian markets were trading higher; Hang Seng advanced 207.46 points or 1.28% to 16,408.95, Taiwan Weighted added 32.29 points or 0.19% to 17,450.63, Jakarta Composite gained 26.99 points or 0.38% to 7,115.78, Straits Times rose 11.24 points or 0.36% to 3,101.44, Shanghai Composite strengthened 12 points or 0.4% to 3,003.44, KOSPI increased 9.91 points or 0.39% to 2,535.27 and Nikkei 225 surged 51.9 points or 0.16% to 32,843.70.