Benchmarks erase losses to trade flat in late morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks erased all of their initial losses and were trading flat in late morning deals, led by buying in Power, Utilities and Oil & Gas stocks. Traders took support with an analysis conducted by the PHD Research Bureau, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry showing that India has emerged as the most resilient economy among the top ten leading economies in the post pandemic years of 2022, 2023. Some support also came as formal job creation under the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) increased 18.2% year-on-year in October with the addition of 1.53 million net new subscribers. Traders also took a note of an article published in the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) bulletin stated that broad-based strengthening of economic activity in India will likely be sustained and retail inflation is expected to ease to 4.6 per cent in the first three quarters of 2024-25 from the latest print of 5.6 per cent. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red as a global stock market rally stalled, despite a slight increase in bond market activity due to expectations of lower interest rates.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 70496.01, down by 10.30 points or 0.01% after trading in a range of 69920.39 and 70499.36. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.74%, while Small cap index was up by 1.07%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 1.25%, Utilities up by 1.22%, Oil & Gas up by 1.11%, Energy up by 1.07% and PSU up by 0.98%, while Bankex down by 0.48% and Realty down by 0.08% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid Corporation up by 1.47%, Reliance Industries up by 0.83%, Wipro up by 0.76%, Tata Motors up by 0.67% and HDFC Bank up by 0.61%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 2.42%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.62%, Indusind Bank down by 1.22%, ICICI Bank down by 1.17% and Sun Pharma down by 0.78% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) President Shradha Suri Marwah has said that the auto component industry is looking to invest around $6.5 to 7 billion over the next five years as compared to $3.5-4 billion spent in the last five years. The components industry continues to make investments for purposes of higher value-addition, technology upgradation, and localisation to stay relevant to both domestic and international customers. 

Further, Marwah said the industry, which recorded a 12.6 per cent year-on-year revenue growth in the first half (April-September) of the current fiscal at Rs 2.98 lakh crore, expects double digit sales growth to continue in the rest of the current fiscal and in the upcoming financial year as well. She noted ‘Going forward, considering the festive season has gone well with significant sales across most segments of the vehicle industry, I am optimistic that the current fiscal year will witness another good performance from the auto components sector.’

Besides, She added with vehicle sales across all segments reaching pre-pandemic levels and with mitigation of supply-side issues witnessed during the pandemic such as availability of semiconductors, high input raw-material costs and non-availability of containers, the auto components sector witnessed a steady growth in both domestic and the international markets in the first-half of FY2023-24.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 21150.75, up by 0.60 points after trading in a range of 20976.80 and 21155.65. There were 33 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Power Grid Corporation up by 1.50%, Apollo Hospital up by 1.31%, LTIMindtree up by 1.28%, Eicher Motors up by 1.19% and Britannia Industries up by 0.91%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 2.39%, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.54%, Cipla down by 1.32%, ICICI Bank down by 1.26% and Indusind Bank down by 1.23% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 526.69 points or 1.56% to 33,149.25, Taiwan Weighted lost 116.53 points or 0.66% to 17,518.67, Hang Seng declined 42.12 points or 0.25% to 16,571.69, KOSPI dropped 20.49 points or 0.78% to 2,593.81 and Jakarta Composite plunged 20.21 points or 0.28% to 7,199.46.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite strengthened 5.25 points or 0.18% to 2,907.36 and Straits Times rose 6.13 points or 0.2% to 3,114.16.