Sensex, Nifty trim opening gains to trade flat in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made optimistic start on Tuesday tracking overnight gains on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 and Dow Jones closed at record highs. Also, sharp fall in crude oil prices overnight aided domestic sentiments. Oil prices fell as OPEC lowered its outlook for global oil demand growth in 2024 and 2025 and a media report that Israel is willing to strike Iranian military and not nuclear or oil targets. Soon, Sensex and Nifty trimmed their most of the gains and are trading flat in early deals. Initially, some support came as John Chambers Chairman, US-India Strategic Partnership Forum said that Indian administration has set the stage for growth, not for the next five years but for the next twenty-five years. He added being the fastest-growing economy in the world by the end of the century India will become much bigger than China in terms of GDP. However, investors turned cautious with the government data showed that soaring vegetable prices pushed the retail inflation rate to a nine-month high of 5.49 per cent in September 2024. The consumer price index (CPI)-based retail inflation rate was 3.65 per cent in August and 5.02 per in September 2023. 

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green, amid bets the US Fed will proceed with modest rate cuts in the near term after recent US inflation data that showed producer prices were unexpectedly unchanged in September, while the annual rate price growth slowed modestly. Back home, Port & shipping sector stocks are in focus as Icra said the overall cargo volumes are expected to see a healthy year-on-year growth of 9-11% to 3.6-3.7 million tonnes this fiscal year on the back of estimated higher domestic and international cargo volumes while the outlook on airport infrastructure is stable. In stock specific development, HCL Technologies gained on reporting an 11% rise in its Q2 net profit.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 82029.61, up by 56.56 points or 0.07% after trading in a range of 81994.68 and 82300.44. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.29%, while Small cap index was up by 0.71%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were TECK up by 0.52%, Healthcare up by 0.48%, Utilities up by 0.45%, Oil & Gas up by 0.42% and IT up by 0.40%, while Metal down by 0.63% and Auto down by 0.31% were the only losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finserv up by 1.44%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 0.98%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.91%, Infosys up by 0.87% and Asian Paints up by 0.71%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.19%, Reliance Industries down by 0.91%, Nestle down by 0.76%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.68% and Tata Steel down by 0.66% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) President and CEO Mukesh Aghi has emphasised that exports are going to be a major job creator for India as the country moves towards becoming a $5 trillion economy. Aghi also stressed that India and the US should continue to strengthen their economic engagements and increase the bilateral trade to $500 billion going forward.

He said creating nearly 1.2 million jobs per month is going to be a challenge, highlighting the importance of job creation to ensure there is no social unrest among the youth. He stated ‘As India's economy goes from 4 to 5 trillion dollars, one of the biggest job creators is going to be exports because we have a challenge and the challenge is how do we create 1.2 million jobs (in India) a month and unless we are able to meet that objective we will start seeing some kind of social unrest among the youth itself.’ He added ‘So I think it is important to keep on driving the (bilateral) trade objective of USD 500 billion moving forward.’

Further, he shared that 5 million Indian Americans currently reside in the US, comprising roughly 1.5 per cent of its population. However, they contribute nearly 6 per cent to the nation's GDP. He asserted ‘So in every aspect, from people to people, economic, technologically and also geo-politically, these two countries (India and the US) are aligned. Yes, we have our road bumps, we have our challenges, but we keep on working with that and what we see with this government, last 10 years they have stepped up. They have basically working with us to make sure that there is much more ease of doing business.’ The bilateral trade between India and the US stood at $118.3 billion in 2023-24. Washington was the top trading partner of New Delhi during 2021-22 and 2022-23.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25118.70, down by 9.25 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 25114.20 and 25212.05. There were 22 stocks advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were BPCL up by 2.74%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.11%, Britannia Industries up by 0.86%, Infosys up by 0.86% and Bharti Airtel up by 0.86%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 1.20%, ONGC down by 1.17%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.02%, Tata Steel down by 0.88% and Hindalco down by 0.86% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 513.54 points or 1.3% to 40,119.34, Taiwan Weighted rose 322.41 points or 1.4% to 23,297.70, Jakarta Composite gained 57.99 points or 0.77% to 7,617.65, Straits Times added 13.15 points or 0.37% to 3,609.06 and KOSPI was up by 6.12 points or 0.23% to 2,629.41. On the other hand, Hang Seng declined 282.76 points or 1.34% to 20,810.11 and Shanghai Composite was down by 17.19 points or 0.53% to 3,267.13.