Lull Ahead Of US Elections & China’s Leadership Change

The Indian markets are trading marginally in the green zone, but on a very quiet note with no major volatility. The Nifty is trading above the 5700 mark and Sensex has touched levels of 18800 on an intraday basis.

Among the sectoral indices, Realty is the major winner, trading 1.42%. Others like Healthcare, Power, IT, etc. are also trading higher. However, Auto, Metals and Capital Goods are trading lower in the negative territory.

The Asian markets are in the red, with the Hang Seng, Nikkei and Shanghai down in the range of 0.1%-1%. Reports say that the Chinese stocks fell, dragging down the benchmark index by the most in a week before the start of the country’s leadership congress and the US presidential elections. Further, it was suggested that Bank of Japan’s new unlimited lending program may further weaken the yen by reviving the carry trade after the currency sank to a six-month low last week.

Back home, Cipla is the leading Sensex gainer, hitting a 52-week high by going up 3.31% to Rs 393.05 per share. This is after the company reported a good set of Sept quarters numbers, which were above the street's expectations. Its net profit grew by 62% to Rs 500 crore. Many broking houses have revised the target for the stock upwards by as much as 10%-20%. Jindal Steel, HDFC and SBI are trading higher by over 1% each. Other stocks like Sun Pharma, Tata Power, Bharti Airtel, TCS, BHEL, etc. are marginally in the green.

On the flip side, Hindalco is leading index loser, lower by 1.96% to Rs 112.45 per share. Auto stocks like Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors and M&M have taken losses in the range of 0.2%-1.7%. Similarly, HUL, Sterlite Industries, Dr Reddy’s Labs, RIL and L&T are among those trading lower as of now.  

Canara Bank reported disappointing Sept quarter numbers. This resulted in the stock moving lower by 2.7% to Rs 407 per share. The net profit for the quarter stood at Rs 661 crore against the street's expectations of Rs 853 crore. Further, the asset quality of the bank worsened, with the Net NPAs having increased by 46 bps to 2.12% on a sequential basis. Going ahead, one could see more of a downside in the scrip.

The market breadth is on the positive side as of now. On the BSE, 1358 shares have advanced, 1163 have declined and 132 are unchanged.