Equity indices reversed gains and hit fresh intraday low in mid-morning trade. The Nifty gave up 11,650 level and descended toward 11,600 mark. Asian shares declined for a third straight session on Friday as jitters over next week's US presidential election and a shaky global economic outlook eclipsed markets.
At 11:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, tumbled 185 points or 0.47% at 39,564.08. The Nifty 50 index slipped 25.55 points or 0.22% at 11,645.90.
The broader market outperformed benchmark index. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.68% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.2%.
The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1280 shares rose and 940 shares fell. A total of 123 shares were unchanged.
COVID-19 Update:
India reported 5,94,386 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 120,527 deaths while 73,73,375 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 44,945,080 with 1,180,317 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Economy:
India's output of eight core infrastructure sectors dropped by 0.8% in September, mainly due to decline in production of crude oil, natural gas, refinery products and cement. The production of eight core sectors had contracted 5.1% in September 2019, data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry showed on Thursday. The decline in output during the month under review was lowest since March. Barring coal, electricity and steel, all sectors (crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser and cement) recorded negative growth in September 2020. India's fiscal deficit stood at Rs 9.1 lakh crore halfway through this financial year, exceeding the full-year target of Rs 7.96 lakh crore by almost 15%, according to official data released on Thursday. Total expenditure stood at Rs 14.8 lakh crore, or 48.6% of the budget estimate. The Centre spent 53% of the budgeted expenditure in the six months ended September 2019.
The government's total revenue was Rs 5.7 lakh crore at the end of September, representing 25% of the budgeted amount and 40% of the figure a year earlier, data from the Controller General of Accounts revealed.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Realty index rose 2.08% to 228, snapping its five-day losing streak amid bargain hunting. The index lost 6% in five trading days.
Sobha (up 4.67%), Prestige Estates Projects (up 3.23%), Sunteck Realty (up 2.93%), Godrej Properties (up 2.89%), DLF Ltd (up 2.42%), Brigade Enterprises (up 1.85%), Oberoi Realty (up 1.37%) and Phoenix Mills (up 0.61%) were top gainers in realty segment.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) added 1.72% after the company signed licensing agreement with Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) for launching electricity derivatives in India. In a BSE filing made after market hours on Thursday, MCX said that the company and IEX had entered into a licensing agreement to launch Electricity derivatives linked to IEX spot electricity prices on MCX trading platform, subject to necessary approvals from the government of India and the concerned regulators.
TVS Motor Company jumped 8%. The company's consolidated net profit fell 29.4% to Rs 181.41 crore on 5.9% rise in net sales to Rs 5,254.36 crore in Q2 September 2020 over Q2 September 2019. Total two-wheeler sales stood at 8.34 lakh units for the quarter was almost in line with 8.42 lakh units in Q2 September 2019. Two-wheeler export sales grew 7.8% during the quarter as compared to Q2FY20. Motorcycles registered a sales of 3.66 lakh units in Q2 September 2020 as against a sales of 3.42 lakh units registered in Q2 September 2019, recording a 7.01% jump Y-o-Y (year-on-year).
Wipro was up 0.8%. The IT major announced its intention to expand its IBM Hybrid Cloud Practice. Supported by technical experts from both organizations, the practice is expected to help Wipro customers modernize their digital operations across hybrid cloud environments by leveraging IBM Cloud Paks, containerized software running on Red Hat OpenShift.
Global Markets:
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 458 points on Friday after some of the technology heavyweights came under pressure following their quarterly reports.
Asian stocks were trading lower on Friday as record numbers of coronavirus cases worldwide and the November 3 U. S. presidential election remained the major factors looming ahead for investors.
Japan's industrial output rose 4% in September from the previous month, according to a preliminary report released Friday by the country's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
In US, stocks closed higher on Thursday, with the technology heavyweights rallying ahead of major earnings reports and upbeat domestic economic data calming investor jitters about surging coronavirus cases.
The US economy grew at an unrivaled pace in the third quarter. Gross domestic product rebounded at a 33.1% annualized rate last quarter, the Commerce Department said in its advance estimate on Thursday. That was the fastest pace since the government started keeping records in 1947 and followed a historic shrinkage rate of 31.4% in the second quarter.
The European Central Bank committed on Thursday to take new action in December to contain the growing fallout from a second wave of coronavirus infections, likely in the form of more bond purchases or cheap credit for banks. While the bank's Governing Council left policy unchanged this time around, it was the clearest hint yet of more stimulus to come as new national lockdown measures make a double-dip recession increasingly likely for the euro zone economy.
In coronavirus developments, Moderna said Thursday it is prepping for the global launch of its potential coronavirus vaccine. That comes amid a rise in cases in the U. S. as well as Europe, with Germany and France announcing new nationwide lockdowns.
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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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