Sensex Down 150 Pts, At 81,800, Nifty At 25,100; Auto, Metal Drag

Indian benchmark equity indices, off the day’s lows, were trading in the red, after a higher open on Tuesday.

At 11 AM, the BSE Sensex was down 135 points, or 0.17 per cent, at 81,837.52, while the Nifty 50 was at 25,074, down 53.20 points, or 0.21 per cent.

Among the 30 BSE Sensex constituents, six stocks started in the red, with loses led by Reliance Industries (down 0.56 per cent), followed by Nestle India, IndusInd Bank, JSW Steel, and Kotak Mahindra Bank. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel was leading gains (up 1.55 per cent), followed by Asian Paints, Infosys, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Titan.

On the Nifty 50, 44 out of the 50 stocks opened in the green, with gains led by Asian Paint (up 1.37 per cent), followed by Infosys, Maruti Suzuki India, UltraTech Cement, and Dr Reddy.

In contrast, loses were capped by IndusInd Bank (down 0.26 per cent), followed by Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Coal India. One stock remained unchanged at open.

All the sectoral indices, barring the Metal index (down 0.44 per cent), were trading higher. Among the top sectoral gainer was the Media index (up 1.33 per cent), followed by Consumer Durables, and Nifty Bank and Financial Services.

Meanwhile, in the broader markets, the Nifty Midcap 100 was up 0.22 per cent, and the Nifty Smallcap 100 was up 0.61 per cent.

Benchmark equity indices BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 had closed higher on Monday, riding on the back of heavy buying across banks, IT, and financial services stocks.

The 30-share Sensex added 591.69 points or 0.73 per cent to settle at 81,973.05, while the Nifty 50 ended higher by 163.70 points or 0.66 per cent at 25,127.95.

Among the broader indices, Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 settled higher by 0.43 per cent each.

Bank Nifty, Financial Services, IT, Private Bank and Realty indices outperformed the other sectoral indices, and ended higher by over 1 per cent each. The remaining sectoral indices too ended in green, barring Media, Metal, and OMCs.

Meanwhile, markets in the Asia-Pacific region were mixed on Tuesday with China leading loses.

The Shanghai Composite was down 0.55 per cent and the CSI 300 was down 0.55 per cent. Similarly, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was down 0.29 per cent, even as Chinese media outlet Caixin Global reported that China may raise an additional $846.5 billion through treasury bonds over three years to help its economy find firmer ground.

That apart, investors in the region assessed trade data out of South Korea, which showed a trade surplus of $6.7 billion in September, up from $3.7 billion in the previous month.

South Korea’s Kospi was 0.08 per cent higher, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.75 per cent.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.1 per cent, while the broad-based Topix rose 0.8 per cent.

On Monday, US stocks ended higher with a boost from technology shares amid light Columbus Day trading on Monday, while crude prices dipped as investors parsed signs of economic softness in China and girded themselves for a string of high-profile corporate earnings.

The S&P 500 and blue-chip Dow both nabbed fresh record closing highs.

Oil prices dipped and the dollar was flat as dour news from China stoked fears of softening global demand.

On Saturday, Beijing pledged to ‘significantly increase’ debt in its attempt to breathe life into the world’s second-largest economy, but disappointed investors with its lack of detail.

This was followed on Monday by a report showing a sharp deceleration in Chinese export growth, which missed expectations by a wide margin, underscoring the need for robust stimulus.

“China is having economic difficulties,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist of CFRA Research in New York. “Oil prices are another indication of lack of confidence that China will be able to pull itself up by its own boot straps, primarily because the stimulus details are so sketchy.”

The bond market in the US was closed in observance of Columbus Day, and there were no earnings reports or economic data to sway investor sentiment.

That will change later in the week, with retail sales, industrial production, and housing starts/building permits, among the scheduled data releases.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 203.14 points, or 0.47 per cent, to 43,067.00, the S&P 500 rose 45.17 points, or 0.78 per cent, to 5,860.20 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 159.75 points, or 0.87 per cent, to 18,502.69.

European shares reached a two-week high at the close of a choppy session as investors mostly shrugged off China’s stimulus plans and focused on earnings season and a European Central Bank policy meeting due later this week.

MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 4.37 points, or 0.51 per cent, to 857.10.

The STOXX 600 index rose 0.53 per cent, while Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 11.55 points, or 0.56 per cent.

Emerging market stocks rose 0.21 points, or 0.02 per cent, to 1,159.77. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 0.02 per cent lower 0.02 per cent, at 613.46, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 224.91 points, or 0.57 per cent, to 39,605.80.

The dollar touched a ten-week high against a basket of world currencies.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.18 per cent to 103.23.

Crude prices dipped as OPEC lowered its 2024 and 2025 oil demand growth view, while China’s oil imports dropped for the fifth straight month.

US crude fell 2.29 per cent to $73.83 per barrel, while Brent fell to $77.46 per barrel, down 2.00 per cent on the day.

Gold backed down from a one-week high in opposition to the greenback’s strength.

Spot gold fell 0.12 per cent to $2,652.68 an ounce. US gold futures fell 0.09 per cent to $2,655.30 an ounce.