Sensex, Nifty trade deeply in red in early deals

Indian equity benchmarks made negative start of November month ahead of the US presidential elections on November 5 followed by the US Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting scheduled for November 7 and 8. Domestically, investors are eyeing HSBC Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) Final for October to be out later in the day. Sensex and Nifty soon extend their losses and are trading deeply in red with cut of over a percent each in early deals due to selling at Oil & Gas and Energy stocks counters. Sustained foreign fund outflows also dented sentiments. Foreign investors pulled out a massive Rs 94,000 crore (around $11.2 billion) from the Indian stock market in October, making it the worst-ever month in terms of outflows, triggered by the elevated valuation of domestic equities and attractive valuations of Chinese stocks. Besides, the RBI said India's forex reserves dropped by $3.463 billion to $684.805 billion in the week ended October 25. 

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly higher following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street on Friday, as traders remain cautious amid lingering geopolitical tensions in the Middle-East, the uncertainty over the US election outcome and the US Fed's monetary policy announcement later in the week. Meanwhile, data showing weaker than expected US job growth in October renewed optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The Japanese stock market is closed for Culture Day holiday.

Back home, auto stocks are in focus after auto sales data released for October. As per a private report, in wholesale terms, the passenger vehicle sector recorded a modest 1.8 per cent increase from the previous year, to a total of 401,447 units. Retail sales posted a 20 per cent rise on the festive push. In stock specific development, M&M climbed after October sales jump 19.8% YoY to 96,648 units.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 78865.24, down by 858.88 points or 1.08% after trading in a range of 78858.82 and 79713.14. There were 4 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 1.23%, while Small cap index was down by 1.76%.

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas down by 2.49%, Energy down by 2.47%, Realty down by 1.84%, Consumer Durables down by 1.71% and PSU down by 1.68%, while there were no gainers on the BSE sectoral front.

The few gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.85%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.08%, HCL Technologies up by 0.49% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.16%. On the flip side, Sun Pharma down by 3.42%, Reliance Industries down by 2.74%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 2.35%, Tata Motors down by 2.02% and NTPC down by 1.92% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the government data has showed that the gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection in October rose 8.9 per cent to Rs 1,87,346 crore, the second-highest ever, on pick-up in domestic sales and improved compliance. In October 2023, the mop-up was at Rs 1.72 lakh crore.

The Central GST collection stood at Rs 33,821 crore, State GST at Rs 41,864 crore, Integrated GST at Rs 99,111 crore and cess at Rs 12,550 crore during the month. October 2024 recorded the second-best GST mop-up. The highest ever collection was in April 2024 at over Rs 2.10 lakh crore.

During the month under review, GST from domestic transactions grew 10.6 per cent to Rs 1.42 lakh crore, while revenues from tax on imports rose about 4 per cent to Rs 45,096 crore. Refunds worth Rs 19,306 crore were issued during the month, registering 18.2 per cent growth over the year-ago period. After adjusting refunds, net GST collection grew 8 per cent at over Rs 1.68 lakh crore.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24025.90, down by 278.45 points or 1.15% after trading in a range of 24023.60 and 24316.75. There were 6 stocks advancing against 44 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.68%, Cipla up by 1.18%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.02%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 0.58% and HCL Technologies up by 0.48%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 4.28%, Hero MotoCorp down by 3.67%, Sun Pharma down by 3.44%, BPCL down by 2.97% and Reliance Industries down by 2.83% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Taiwan Weighted rose 111.4 points or 0.49% to 22,891.48, KOSPI increased 38.49 points or 1.51% to 2,580.85, Hang Seng advanced 21.69 points or 0.11% to 20,528.12, Straits Times adde4d 20.09 points or 0.57% to 3,575.52 and Shanghai Composite was up by 17.5 points or 0.53% to 3,289.51, while Jakarta Composite was down by 53.52 points or 0.71% to 7,451.74.