Markets remain in red in late morning deals

Domestic equity markets remained in red and were trading with cut of around half a percent in late morning deals, on account of hectic selling in IT industry related stocks namely TCS, Infosys and Wipro. Traders remained cautious after the domestic and US inflation data that re-ignited concerns of delay in rate cuts. India's retail inflation in November witnessed its quickest increase in three months at 5.55%, up from 4.87% in October and 5.02% in September. Meanwhile, consumer price index of U.S. crept up by 0.1 percent in November after coming in unchanged in October. Besides, investors awaited the final Federal Reserve decision of the year. On the BSE sectoral front, traders were seen pilling up position in PSU, Healthcare, FMCG, Utilities and Capital Goods, while selling was witnessed in IT, TECK, Energy, Oil & Gas and Realty. 

On the global front, Asian markets were mostly trading in red as traders awaited a slew of central bank decisions on Thursday, including the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, the Swiss National Bank and the Norges Bank. Back home, in the stock specific development, Shilpa Medicare rose after its Bengaluru unit received approval from TGA, Australia for manufacture, labeling, packaging and testing of medicinal Oral Mouth Dissolving Films (Wafers).

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 69260.72, down by 290.31 points or 0.42% after trading in a range of 69207.09 and 69655.83. There were 11 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.34%, while Small cap index up by 0.14%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 1.12%, Healthcare up by 0.35%, FMCG up by 0.22%, Utilities up by 0.16% and Capital Goods up by 0.11%, while IT down by 1.53%, TECK down by 1.45%, Energy down by 0.46%, Oil & Gas down by 0.44% and Realty down by 0.43% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC up by 2.28%, Power Grid up by 1.49%, ITC up by 0.71%, Larsen & Toubro up by 0.39% and Indusind Bank up by 0.28%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 2.44%, TCS down by 2.18%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.81%, Wipro down by 1.28% and Ultratech Cement down by 1.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, with the help of strong performance in the manufacturing, mining and electricity generation sectors, India’s industrial production growth jumped to a 16-month high of 11.7 per cent in October 2023 compared to the same month of the previous year. Index of Industrial Production (IIP) growth had come in at a three-month low of 5.8 percent in September. This has been revised at 6.2 per cent. Factory output measured in terms of the IIP had contracted by 4.1 per cent in October 2022.

The data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed that the manufacturing sector, which provides quality jobs to young engineers and graduates passing out of the country’s universities, posted a double digit growth rate of 10.4 per cent during October 2023 from a contraction of 5.8 per cent in October 2022. The mining sector production shot up by 13.1 per cent against 2.6 per cent in October 2022, while electricity generation surged by as much as 20.4 per cent sharply higher than the 1.2 percent growth it had posted the same month previous year.

In terms of the use-based classification of goods, production growth in October was higher for all six categories compared to September. The capital goods segment grew 22.6 per cent in October this year compared to a 2.4 per cent contraction in the year-ago month. The intermediate goods output in October rose 9.7 per cent against a contraction of 2.3 per cent growth during the corresponding month last year. Infrastructure/construction goods posted a growth of 11.3 per cent against a 1.7 per cent expansion. Consumer durables output during the month grew by 15.9 per cent against a contraction of 18.1 per cent. Consumer non-durable goods output increased by 8.6 per cent compared to a contraction of 13 per cent a year earlier. 

The data also showed that the output of primary goods logged 11.4 per cent growth in the month compared to 2.1 per cent in the year-ago period. The indices stood at 146.1 for Primary Goods, 106.9 for Capital Goods, 157.8 for Intermediate Goods and 173.9 for Infrastructure/ Construction Goods for the month of October 2023. Further, the indices for Consumer durables and Consumer non-durables stood at 123.0 and 141.5 respectively for the month of October 2023.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 20811.80, down by 94.60 points or 0.45% after trading in a range of 20801.15 and 20936.00. There were 17 stocks advancing against 33 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were NTPC up by 2.29%, Power Grid up by 1.58%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.47%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.15% and Eicher Motors up by 0.92%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 2.45%, HDFC Life Insurance down by 2.30%, TCS down by 2.13%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.85% and LTIMindtree down by 1.56% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 190.36 points or 1.16% to 16,184.14, Straits Times fell 0.95 points or 0.03% to 3,101.36, KOSPI dropped 24.52 points or 0.97% to 2,510.75, Shanghai Composite weakened 25.72 points or 0.86% to 2,977.72, Jakarta Composite plunged 42.78 points or 0.6% to 7,082.53. However, Nikkei 225 surged 94.01 points or 0.29% to 32,937.71 and Taiwan Weighted added 12.44 points or 0.07% to 17,463.07.