Markets trade flat with negative bias in late morning deals

Indian equity markets traded flat with negative bias in late morning deals on account of selling in Ultratech Cement, Adani Ports, NTPC, Sun Pharma and Mahindra & Mahindra companies’ stocks. Traders were cautious after a private report said that India's economy likely grew at its slowest pace in one-and-a-half years in the three months to end-September as weak consumption offset a strong recovery in government spending, which for years has helped drive growth. Further, weak cues from other Asian markets also weighed on the domestic sentiments. Telecommunication companies were in focus following reports that the Union Cabinet has approved a waiver of bank guarantees (BGs) for telecom companies, marking a significant step toward easing the financial burden on the sector. The waiver applies to spectrum acquired by telecom operators in auctions held before 2022.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red after Singapore’s manufacturing output rose 1.2% year on year, missing street expectations of a 2.2% rise. The figure compares to a 9.8% increase in September. Investors were cautious after President-elect Donald Trump plans to raise tariffs by an additional 10% on all Chinese goods coming into the U.S. In the stock specific development, Premier Energies surged after the company announced that its arms, Premier Energies Global Environment, Premier Energies International, Premier Energies Photovoltaic, have received and accepted multiple orders aggregating to Rs 1,087 crore from 2 large Independent Power Producers (IPP) and 1 other customer.  

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 80033.11, down by 76.74 points or 0.10% after trading in a range of 79899.89 and 80482.36. There were 13 stocks advancing against 17 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index was up by 0.33%, while Small cap index up by 0.44%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.17%, IT up by 1.03%, TECK up by 0.85%, Metal up by 0.83% and Telecom up by 0.80%, while Utilities down by 1.39%, Power down by 0.99%, Auto down by 0.55%, Healthcare down by 0.44% and Oil & Gas down by 0.25% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Asian Paints up by 2.13%, Infosys up by 1.85%, Tata Steel up by 0.97%, Tech Mahindra up by 0.93% and Nestle up by 0.76%. On the flip side, Ultratech Cement down by 2.42%, Adani Ports down by 2.22%, NTPC down by 1.57%, Sun Pharma down by 1.55% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.20% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, a working paper by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) has said that India needs to adopt an ‘offensive posture’ and international best practices with regard to intellectual property rights (IPR) with an aim to become the centre of the global knowledge economy. It said India must shed its traditional reticence to participate in international best practices that are critical to making India the centre of the global knowledge economy. It said ‘if India wants to be a major R&D hub and a place for cutting-edge manufacturing and IP generation, we need to move away from a defensive to an offensive posture.’

The paper, titled 'India and Global IPR Treaties' said ‘instead of defending domestic markets, our focus must be on laying the groundwork for Indian innovators to capture global markets.’ It noted ‘for far too long, India’s policies have been tuned to be defensive in benchmarking ourselves to global standards. This is ultimately counter-productive since we ultimately accept those foreign innovations anyway.’

While emphasising that India must shed its traditional reticence to participate in international best practices, the paper said ‘the Strasbourg Agreement on patents will entail no change in our domestic law, while the two treaties on industrial designs (Hague Agreement and Design Law Treaty) will require amendments to the provisions of Designs Act 2000 that deal with procedural elements’. Since Independence, the paper said ‘India's IPR system has been defensive because we started with the assumption that Indian innovators cannot compete with international counterparts’. It added that this is no longer the case with an unprecedented rise in domestic filings of IPR and even MNCs generating IPRs in India with their global capability centres. It said India needs to take an offensive stance on IPR today as Indian entities are as likely to generate these IPRs with tremendous economic potential in the global markets. 

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24207.45, down by 14.45 points or 0.06% after trading in a range of 24160.05 and 24343.30. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bharat Electronics up by 2.41%, Asian Paints up by 2.10%, Infosys up by 1.81%, Britannia up by 1.63% and Shriram Finance up by 1.33%. On the flip side, Adani Enterprises down by 3.17%, Ultratech Cement down by 2.46%, Adani Ports down by 2.34%, Bajaj Auto down by 2.04% and NTPC down by 1.67% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Straits Times fell 9.73 points or 0.26% to 3,721.66, KOSPI dropped 14.65 points or 0.58% to 2,519.69, Nikkei 225 slipped 563.6 points or 1.47% to 38,216.54, Taiwan Weighted lost 220.2 points or 0.97% to 22,728.17 and Jakarta Composite plunged 23.37 points or 0.32% to 7,290.74. However, Hang Seng advanced 63.46 points or 0.33% to 19,214.45 and Shanghai Composite strengthened 4.85 points or 0.15% to 3,268.61.