Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade in green in morning deals, led by gains in Realty, Telecom and Auto stocks following the global market’s recovery. Sentiments remained positive with a private report stating that a pick-up in private investment is an imperative for driving India’s growth. The report said with the government trying to bring down the fiscal deficit and the likelihood of subsidy bills going up, public capex-which seems to have led to the uptick in real-investment growth recently-may come down. Traders overlooked the provisional data available on the NSE showing that foreign institutional investors (FII) offloaded shares worth net Rs 997.76 crore on October 9, 2023. On the global front, Asian markets are trading mostly in green amid hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve will halt its campaign of interest-rate hikes. However, the fresh geopolitical crisis in the Middle East is weighing on market sentiment. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 65855.24, up by 342.85 points or 0.52% after trading in a range of 65662.27 and 65896.75. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.76%, while Small cap index was up by 1.08%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.21%, Telecom up by 2.08%, Auto up by 1.17%, Consumer discretionary up by 1.00% and PSU up by 0.90%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up by 2.67%, Tata Motors up by 1.64%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.41%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.28% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.99%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 0.82%, TCS down by 0.44%, Asian Paints down by 0.12% and NTPC down by 0.06% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the commerce ministry has said the next round of negotiations for a trade agreement between India and South American nation Peru will start from October 10. The agreement is aimed at promoting bilateral trade and investments between the two countries. With the pact, the two trading partners will significantly reduce or eliminate customs duties on maximum number of goods traded between them.

It mentioned ‘A special round of negotiations for the India - Peru trade agreement is scheduled to be held virtually on October 10-11.’ Further, it stated during the negotiations, the two sides will discuss different issues, including rules of origin, trade in goods, customs procedures and trade facilitation, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures. Discussions on services, movement of natural persons (professionals), trade remedies and investment chapter will be held later in the month based on mutual convenience of the negotiators. 

Negotiations for the agreement was started in 2017 and the fifth round was concluded in August 2019. The negotiations were paused due to the coronavirus pandemic. It added it is anticipated that the agreement will significantly boost trade, investment and enhance cooperation in various sectors. The sixth round is slated to be held in December 2023 at Lima in Peru. During 2022-23, the bilateral trade between India and Peru stood at $3.12 billion.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 19612.05, up by 99.70 points or 0.51% after trading in a range of 19565.45 and 19626.65. There were 42 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports &SEZ up by 2.89%, Bharti Airtel up by 2.60%, Adani Enterprises up by 1.74%, Tata Motors up by 1.64% and Maruti Suzuki up by 1.44%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 0.84%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 0.71%, TCS down by 0.45%, Cipla down by 0.40% and Divi's Lab down by 0.20% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mostly in green; Nikkei 225 surged 768.16 points or 2.48% to 31,762.83, Hang Seng advanced 226.59 points or 1.28% to 17,743.99, Straits Times rose 26.18 points or 0.83% to 3,192.69, KOSPI increased 3.53 points or 0.15% to 2,412.26 and Jakarta Composite gained 50.33 points or 0.73% to 6,941.79.

On the flip side, Shanghai Composite weakened 15.4 points or 0.5% to 3,081.52.