Indian benchmarks trade in fine fettle in early deals

Extending their northward journey to third day in a row, Indian equity benchmarks are trading in fine fettle in early deals on Friday as Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned big buyers in Indian equities amid easing concerns over funding India’s current account deficit and waning fears of Fed tapering. Some support also came in from appreciation in Indian rupee against dollar. The partially convertible rupee was trading at 61.33 per dollar at the time of equity markets closing as against the previous close of 61.73 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange. Meanwhile, shares of automobiles companies continue to trade higher for third day in row after reporting a better-than-expected monthly sales numbers in September and expectation of near term improvement in volume trajectory led by festive season.

However, global cues remained sluggish with the US markets continuing their tepid run overnight with the lingering government shutdown and the major indices closed lower by a percent amid disappointing service sector data. Moreover, Asian equity benchmarks too were trading mostly in the red at this point of time with investors offloading their holdings in risky assets, amid concern that the US political impasse could lead to the government defaulting on its debt, sparking a recession.

Back home, on the sectoral front, auto witnessed the maximum gain in trade followed by realty and consumer durables, while metal and fast moving consumer goods remained the top losers on the BSE sectoral space. The broader indices too were trading with traction, while the market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 908 shares on the gaining side against 368 shares on the losing side while 53 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 19870.00; about 32 points lower compared to its previous closing of 19902.07, and has touched a high and a low of 20013.88 and 19868.83 respectively. The index is currently trading at 19978.61, up by 76.54 points or 0.38%. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 68.32% stocks advancing against 27.69% declines. The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap up by 0.57% and Small cap indices up by 0.67%. 

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Auto up by 2.12%, Realty up by 1.27%, Consumer Durables up by 1.18%, IT up by 0.70% and Teck up by 0.69%, while Metal down by 0.29% and FMCG down by 0.26% were the only losers on the sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors up by 4.26%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.09%, TCS up by 1.99%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.71% and Cipla up by 1.70%. On the flip side, Sesa Goa was down by 1.36%, Hindustan Unilever was down by 1.12%, Jindal Steel was down by 0.87%, Dr Reddys Labwas down by 0.66%  and Gail India was down by 0.56% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, Concerned over the declining share of Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) in the global market, the MSME ministry has suggested such enterprises, especially start ups, to adopt innovative technologies in production in order to make them globally competitive.

MSME Secretary Madhav Lal, said that there is need to work within certain frameworks and policies as the MSME sector has been witnessing a slow growth phase with its share of exports falling from 40 percent to 36 percent now. On the other hand, countries such as China have been increasing their share consistently on the back of their superior global competitiveness. By adding further, Madhav Lal said that MSME is of the view that global competitiveness in MSME firms can be achieved only through well thought frameworks, therefore the ministry is presently working on those mechanisms to tackle the issues of innovation in these firms.

The MSME sector contributes around 8% of the country's GDP, 45% of the manufactured output and provides employment to over 8 crore persons engaged in over 3.6 crore units. Meanwhile, the government has been taking steps to boost the sector’s growth. In the 12th Five-Year Plan, the government has increased Budget allocation for the sector to Rs 24,000 crore from Rs 11,000 crore in the previous five-plan period. Further, it has also set up a six-member inter-ministerial panel, which will suggest measures to boost the MSME exports.

The CNX Nifty opened at 5,891.30; about 18 points lower as compared to its previous closing of 5,909.70, and has touched a high and a low of 5,942.25 and 5,889.95 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,930.50, up by 20.80 points or 0.35%. There were 30 stocks advancing against 18 declines and one stock remains unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Tata Motors up by 3.80%, BPCL up by 3.24%, M&M up by 2.07%, TCS up by 1.98% and PNB up by 1.77%. On the flip side, JP Associate down by 1.86%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.24%, Jindal Steel down by 1.16%, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories down by 0.77% and Power Grid down by 0.65% were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Hang Seng declined 114.00 points or 0.49% to 23,100.40, Jakarta Composite shed 31.44 points or 0.71% to 4,387.20, Nikkei 225 contracted 73.13 points or 0.51% to 14,084.12, Seoul Composite dipped 2.31 points or 0.12% to 1,997.16 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 1.88 points or 0.02% to 8,357.14.

KLSE Composite rose 3.20 points or 0.18% to 1,774.57 and Straits Times was up by 0.79 points or 0.03% to 3,145.58.

China’s markets remained closed for trade today on account of National Day holiday