Benchmarks remain in red terrain in morning deals

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in red in morning deals, as Q2FY25 earnings fell short of investor expectations, dampening Diwali market cheer amid continued foreign selling pressure. According to exchange data, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital markets on Tuesday, as they offloaded shares worth Rs 548.69 crore. Some concern also came as Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas said that no one can predict fuel prices because of the uncertainty that has prevailed in different parts of the world citing tensions in the Middle East. Traders overlooked President Droupadi Murmu’s statement that India is the fastest growing major economy and is likely to become the third largest economy soon. She said the Indian economy had been demonstrating resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges and the country's economy was likely to grow tenfold by 2047. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in red as caution prevailed ahead of next week's U.S. presidential election and Federal Reserve rate decision. Concern about the tension in the Middle East is also weighing on the markets.  

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 80109.86, down by 259.17 points or 0.32% after trading in a range of 79981.96 and 80284.81. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.34%, while Small cap index was up by 1.35%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Industrials up by 0.99%, Basic Materials up by 0.87%, FMCG up by 0.82%, Capital Goods up by 0.80% and Realty up by 0.74%, while Consumer Durables down by 1.22%, Bankex down by 0.86%, Healthcare down by 0.13% and TECK down by 0.07% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Adani Ports &SEZ up by 2.04%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.17%, Nestle up by 0.87%, Indusind Bank up by 0.77% and Power Grid Corporation up by 0.76%. On the flip side, ICICI Bank down by 1.64%, Sun Pharma down by 1.40%, Bajaj Finserv down by 1.00%, Axis Bank down by 0.93% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.84% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, has laid out a vision to transform India into the world’s top automobile hub within the next decade. Citing India’s competitive advantages in production costs and labour, Gadkari expressed confidence in the country’s capacity to become a leading global player.

He stated ‘The size of our automobile industry is 22 lakh crore. and size of the China’s automobile industry is 44 lakh crores and US is 78 lakh crore. Now, our aim is to make India’s automobile industry within 10 years number one in the world.’ He said India’s production cost is much less than other countries, but high logistic cost is an issue for India. With the growth of infrastructure, better roads and ports our logistic costs is coming down.

He added ‘USA and European countries, it is 12 per cent. And Indian scenario, it going up to 14 to 16 percent. So, this is the first time we have decided to reduce this cost. We have now a lot of express highway, 36 green access control express highways. Our NHI is triple-A rating.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24405.60, down by 61.25 points or 0.25% after trading in a range of 24337.60 and 24436.45. There were 26 stocks advancing against 24 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Enterprises up by 3.11%, Bharat Electronics up by 2.87%, Tata Consumer Product up by 2.18%, Britannia Industries up by 2.14% and Adani Ports &SEZ up by 2.05%. On the flip side, Cipla down by 3.86%, Shriram Finance down by 2.48%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 1.75%, ICICI Bank down by 1.53% and SBI Life Insurance down by 1.53% were the top losers. 

Asian markets are trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted lost 67.89 points or 0.3% to 22,858.70, Hang Seng declined 384.91 points or 1.89% to 20,316.23, KOSPI dropped 28.01 points or 1.07% to 2,589.79, Straits Times fell 31.87 points or 0.89% to 3,558.49, Jakarta Composite plunged 60.73 points or 0.8% to 7,545.87 and Shanghai Composite weakened 28.36 points or 0.87% to 3,258.05.

On the flip side, Nikkei 225 surged 387.37 points or 1% to 39,291.05.