Markets continue to trade higher in late afternoon session

Indian equity markets continued to trade higher in late afternoon session supported by positive global market cues. Investors remained optimistic about a potential end to the U.S. government shutdown after the U.S. Senate voted 60-40 on a key step to end the government shutdown, advancing a funding bill after weeks of gridlock. Besides, foreign institutional Investors’ (FIIs) renewed interest in Indian equities has kept the sentiments upbeat. The FIIs were net buyer on Friday’s session, with a net buying of equities worth Rs 4,581.34 crore. Further, markets experienced some bargain hunting following the three consecutive sessions of losses.

On the global front, Asian equity markets were trading mostly in green after China's producer price deflation eased in October while consumer prices returned to positive territory. European equity markets were trading higher after Germany's exports rebounded in September as demand from the US increased for the first time after five months of decrease.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 83671.17, up by 454.89 points or 0.55% after trading in a range of 83197.67 and 83754.49. There were 20 stocks advancing against 10 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading mixed; the BSE Mid cap index surged 0.78%, while Small cap index was down by 0.21%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.78%, TECK up by 1.62%, Capital Goods up by 1.33%, Metal up by 0.84% and Consumer Durables up by 0.80%. Meanwhile, there were no losers on the BSE sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 2.87%, HCL Technologies up by 1.83%, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles up by 1.60%, Bajaj Finance up by 1.53% and TCS up by 1.33%. On the flip side, Trent down by 7.41%, Power Grid Corporation down by 0.75%, Eternal down by 0.75%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.39% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.38% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to achieve India’s vision to become $30-trillion economy by 2047, the World Bank in its Financial Sector Assessment (FSA) report has said that the country needs to give further impetus to financial sector reforms to boost private capital mobilisation. The report has acknowledged that India's 'world class' digital public infrastructure and government programmes have significantly improved access to a wider range of financial services for men and women. It has also made suggestions to further boost account usage, especially for women, and to facilitate access to wider range of financial products for individuals and MSMEs.

The Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP), a joint programme of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), undertakes a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of a country's financial sector. Since September 2010, the exercise has become mandatory for jurisdictions with systemically important financial sectors. Currently, it is mandatory for 32 jurisdictions, including India, to be conducted every five years, and for another 15 jurisdictions every 10 years. As per practice, as a concluding part of the FSAP, the IMF comes out with Financial System Stability Assessment (FSSA) report and the World Bank brings out the Financial Sector Assessment (FSA) report. Last FSAP for India was conducted in 2017. 

World Bank's FSA report highlights that India's financial system has become more resilient, diversified, and inclusive since the last FSAP in 2017. It observed that financial sector reforms helped India recover from various distress episodes of 2010s as well as the pandemic. On regulation and supervision of banks and NBFCs, it said India's expansion of regulatory authority on cooperative banks, tightening of key prudential rules, and reorganisation of regulatory and supervisory departments to enhance effectiveness. 

It has also welcomed the scale-based regulation for NBFCs, which recognises the different needs of this diverse industry, and recommended further-strengthening of the credit risk management framework for better supervision of banks and NBFCs. For India's capital markets, the report has noted that the capital markets (equity, government bonds and corporate bonds) have increased from 144 per cent to about 175 per cent of GDP since the last FSAP. These gains have been supported by a robust capital market infrastructure and diverse investor base. The report suggests developing credit enhancement mechanisms, risk sharing facilities, and securitisation platforms to further mobilize capital.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25627.85, up by 135.55 points or 0.53% after trading in a range of 25503.50 and 25653.45. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Infosys up by 2.87%, Grasim Industries up by 1.79%, HCL Technologies up by 1.78%, Wipro up by 1.64% and Bajaj Finance up by 1.57%. On the flip side, Trent down by 7.44%, Max Healthcare Inst down by 2.14%, Tata Consumer Products down by 1.41%, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise down by 0.99% and Eternal down by 0.83% were the top losers.

Asian equity markets were trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 649.63 points or 1.28% to 50,926.00, Hang Seng advanced 418.17 points or 1.57% to 26,660.00, Taiwan Weighted added 218.1 points or 0.78% to 27,869.51, Shanghai Composite strengthened 21.04 points or 0.52% to 4,018.60, Jakarta Composite gained 13.7 points or 0.16% to 8,408.29 and KOSPI increased 119.48 points or 2.93% to 4,073.24, while Straits Times fell 6.53 points or 0.15% to 4,485.71.

European equity markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 64.92 points or 0.67% to 9,747.49, France’s CAC rose 87.82 points or 1.1% to 8,038.00 and Germany’s DAX gained 353.94 points or 1.5% to 23,923.90.