Domestic indices trade in red in early deals; HUL leads losers

Indian equity benchmarks made cautious start on Thursday tracking the broadly negative cues from Wall Street overnight as well as weakness in Asian counterparts, as traders reacted to rising bond yields and amid bets the US Fed will take a more measured approach on interest rate cuts. The continued tension in the Middle East is also weighing on the markets. Sensex and Nifty are trading in red in early deals due to selling across sectors led by FMCG and Telecom counters. Investors are closely monitoring quarterly earnings reports alongside they are looking for manufacturing, composite, and services Flash PMI data for October to be out later in the day for more directional cues. Market participants overlooked minutes of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) monetary policy committee's latest meeting stated that India's food inflation expected to ease by Q4 of fiscal year 2024-25 on better kharif arrivals and rising prospects of a good rabi season, despite a significant pick-up in September inflation print. 

On the sectoral front, real estate industry stocks are in focus after a report noted that India’s real estate market is experiencing a significant surge, as the festive season approaches, propelled by a combination of large-scale infrastructure projects, buyer-friendly incentives, and an increasing appetite for premium properties. In stock specific development, Hindustan Unilever leading the losers on the indices as Q2 net profit drops 2.3% YoY to Rs 2,595 crore.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 79879.38, down by 202.60 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 79813.02 and 80259.82. There were 12 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.17%, while Small cap index was down by 0.43%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Healthcare up by 0.47%, Utilities up by 0.28%, Power up by 0.21%, Realty up by 0.19% and Consumer Durables up by 0.18%, while FMCG down by 1.66%, Telecom down by 0.97%, Metal down by 0.81%, TECK down by 0.62% and Industrials down by 0.57% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Ultratech Cement up by 1.03%, HDFC Bank up by 1.00%, Sun Pharma up by 0.76%, Tata Motors up by 0.70% and Power Grid up by 0.60%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 5.57%, Nestle down by 1.60%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.28%, ITC down by 0.85% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.80% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that India wants to enhance its influence in the world as one in every six persons is Indian and the world cannot ignore India's economy. Sitharaman stated that no country, whether US which is far away or China which is very close cannot ignore India. She stated that India has always backed multilateral institutions and did not at any time seek to undermine any multilateral institution. She said that expectations pinned on multilateral institutions are fissured away as no solutions are coming out of them.

On how nations like India and other big emerging markets step up and play a role that helps to take ownership of that process and drive the reform forward, Sitharaman said, 'Yes, absolutely possible. And on this, I just want to again start from where a thought of my Prime Minister came in and this is well thought through. He once said India's priority is not to impose its dominance. In the sense we have the biggest democracy, we have in the world, the largest population but to enhance its influence. Now why do we want to have our influence enhanced? It's only because the fact that today one in every six person in the world is an Indian and you just cannot ignore our economy and the way in which it is growing, that's the second.'

She added ‘And third, the skilled manpower which today is in India and also everywhere else running large corporations which are for running institutions which are in large countries, developed countries. But yet that particular point that Larry mentioned, that in today's world, the course which developed countries took, starting from producing textiles, cycles, bicycles and something else, and reaching development, is no longer available. It is going to be something else’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24354.60, down by 80.90 points or 0.33% after trading in a range of 24341.20 and 24480.65. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Grasim Industries up by 1.41%, Cipla up by 1.25%, Ultratech Cement up by 1.07%, Coal India up by 0.95% and HDFC Bank up by 0.90%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 5.49%, Hindalco down by 5.47%, SBI Life Insurance down by 4.47%, Nestle down by 1.62% and Bharti Airtel down by 1.47% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Hang Seng slipped 205.11 points or 0.99% to 20,555.04, Taiwan Weighted lost 109.69 points or 0.47% to 23,225.07, Nikkei 225 declined 42.65 points or 0.11% to 38,062.21. Jakarta Composite fell 27.01 points or 0.35% to 7,760.56, Shanghai Composite weakened 16.63 points or 0.51% to 3,286.17 and KOSPI was down by 6.05 points or 0.23% to 2,593.57, while Straits Times was up by 19.62 points or 0.54% to 3,620.40.