Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks lost more ground on Thursday and ended with cut of over half a percent amid weekly F&O expiry. The market weakness was attributed to continued selling by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) amid concerns over global geopolitical tensions and China’s economic growth. Besides, investors were monitoring Q2FY25 earnings. As for broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index witnessed above one percent losses each during the day. 

After making slightly positive start, soon markets entered into negative territory as foreign fund outflows dented sentiments. On October 16, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 3,435.94 crore. Further, indices extended their losses. Traders overlooked the government data showed that India’s merchandise exports in September slightly rose to $34.58 billion against $34.41 billion a year ago, while imports increased by 1.6 per cent to $55.36 billion in September compared to $54.49 billion in the year-ago period. In afternoon session, markets continued to trade lower, as traders avoided to take risk ahead of IT major’s Q2FY25 earnings -- Infosys and Wipro. Traders took note of report that credit rating agency ICRA has projected the combined capital spending of a sample of 13 major state governments to expand by 13% to Rs 6.5 trillion in FY25. However, this entails a miss, relative to the FY25 Budget Estimate (BE) of Rs 7.2 trillion, following a dull start to the capex in the initial months of this fiscal as well as the anticipated undershooting in states’ revenues. In late afternoon session, markets continued their sluggish trade, as traders sold out their riskier stocks.

On the global front, European markets were trading higher as investors digested a slew of earnings and awaited an interest rate cut by the European Central Bank later in the day. Asian markets ended mixed with Chinese and Hong Kong markets giving up early gains to end sharply lower after China announced supportive measures to prop up the country's troubled property sector, albeit on a small scale. Back home, CRISIL in its latest report has said that India’s renewable energy capacity is likely to grow at twice the rate of the country’s overall energy capacity growth. 

The BSE Sensex ended at 81,006.61, down by 494.75 points or 0.61% after trading in a range of 80,905.64 and 81,781.40. There were 9 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index declined 1.65%, while Small cap index was down by 1.42%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.13% and TECK was up by 0.55%, while Realty down by 3.76%, Auto down by 3.48%, Consumer Disc down by 2.45%, Consumer Durables down by 2.28% and Telecom was down by 2.13% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys up by 2.58%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.39%, Power Grid up by 1.30%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.02% and SBI up by 0.63%. On the flip side, Nestle down by 3.35%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 3.34%, Ultratech Cement down by 2.70%, Bajaj Finserv down by 2.40% and Titan Company down by 1.99% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has stressed the need to manufacture high-quality products, and said without this approach it is going to be very difficult to make India truly competitive. He emphasized that prioritizing quality would not only meet domestic demands but also position India to serve global markets. He added ‘It will impact our ability to create jobs, expand economic activity, and sustain India’s economic growth’. He urged industry leaders to embrace quality as a long-term movement, stressing that for India to become a globally recognized brand, its products and services must be synonymous with quality.

Goyal acknowledged the challenges India faces in adopting quality standards, particularly in the face of initial resistance when introducing quality control orders. However, he underscored that overcoming this opposition is critical for India’s economic future. He said ‘India will have to aspire to be recognized in the world as a brand, a product made in India, a service provided from India. If it can be recognized across the world that if it’s coming from India, it has to be good quality, that’s when we will truly be competitive globally.’

He stressed that a shift in mindset is necessary to drive a quality-centric approach across sectors. He remarked ‘The root cause is our thinking, the mindset of the nation’, pointing out that those organizations that embraced quality saw a significant transformation in their growth and profitability, while others that ignored it remained peripheral players in the industry. He shared statistics demonstrating the government’s efforts to push for higher quality standards. He said ‘In the last 10 years, we have expanded from 14 quality control orders covering 106 products to 174 covering 732 products’, and emphasized the push for industries to align with these standards despite initial resistance.

The CNX Nifty ended at 24,749.85, down by 221.45 points or 0.89% after trading in a range of 24,728.90 and 25,029.50. There were 10 stocks advancing against 40 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Infosys up by 2.50%, Tech Mahindra up by 2.33%, Power Grid up by 1.21%, Larsen & Toubro up by 1.07% and SBI up by 0.70%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 12.89%, Shriram Finance down by 3.89%, Nestle down by 3.39%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 3.37% and Hero MotoCorp down by 3.35% were the top losers.  (Provisional)

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 27.7 points or 0.33% to 8,356.77, France’s CAC rose 78.78 points or 1.04% to 7,570.78 and Germany’s DAX was up by 138.56 points or 0.71% to 19,571.37.

Asian markets ended mixed on Thursday, with Chinese and Hong Kong markets settling lower after China’s housing ministry briefing failed to impress investors and sent property shares into steep decline. Meanwhile, investors were awaiting China’s third-quarter GDP and a slew of macro-economic data including retail sales and house prices due on Friday. Japanese markets declined, even as Wall Street shares resumed their advance as Morgan Stanley and United Airlines earnings topped estimates. Data from the Ministry of Finance showed Japanese exports dropped 1.7% year-on-year in September, marking the first decrease in 10 months.