Share market updates: On Wednesday, most heavily weighted sectors, including Bank, Finance, Auto, and Metal, lost ground, with the Sensex and Nifty recovering just slightly to close down 0.4%.
Auto stocks are hampered by mixed September sales indicators, while Bank and Finance stocks declined due to concerns about the possibility of an extended period of high interest rates in the U.S.
Global and domestic risks have increased since the August policy, and domestic inflation is still significantly above the 4% objective and is projected to do so for at least a few more quarters. The RBI MPC meeting is currently taking place to discuss the October policy.
Wednesday’s Asian markets are substantially lower after Wall Street plunged as investors concentrated on the drawbacks of an unexpectedly robust labour market: the chance that interest rates will remain high.
As the US-led selloff spread to other markets, global bond rates were driven higher by their Treasury peers to the biggest level since the pandemic struck in 2020. After rising to 4.85% this week, traders are preparing for 10-year US rates to surpass 5% for the first time since 2007.
In response to unfavourable global cues, Indian shares declined on Wednesday, with the Finance, Bank, and Auto sectors suffering the most. While the RBI MPC meeting, which is now taking place, focused attention on the Banking and Finance stocks, mixed signals from September sales drove down auto stocks.
The S&P BSE Sensex dropped 290 points to conclude at 65,226 while the NSE Nifty 50 index lost 80 points to end at 19,449. In today’s session, 13 of 15 broad-based sectoral indices closed in the red.
The top three stocks were Adani Enterprises, HDFC Bank, and Nestle India, with Axis Bank and SBI trailing far behind with losses of 4% and 2.5%, respectively. Other notable laggards included Ultratech Cement, IndusInd Bank, and NTPC.
Almost all sectoral indices declined, with the declines in the Bank, Finance, Metal, Pharmaceutical, and Realty falling by over 1% apiece. Only IT and FMCG were able to close today’s session with modest gains.
As a result of Wednesday’s deepening crisis in the global bond markets, which saw U.S. rates hit 16-year highs and challenge equities valuations as well as dampen enthusiasm for risk assets generally, Asian stocks fell to 11-month lows.
As overnight Wall Street falls continued, Japan’s Nikkei share average dropped to a more than four-month low. At the same time, U.S. Treasury rates reached new 16-year highs. Nikkei stock index fell 2.3%. The Bank of Japan typically purchases exchange-traded funds later in the day to boost the market if the broader Topix declines by more than 2% (which it did by 2.5% in this case).
As investors anticipated China’s Golden Week holiday data, Hong Kong stocks continued to lose ground in a second session due to a sell-off in global bond markets that also affected equities markets.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index fell 1.12%, and the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong fell 0.78%. The Hang Seng Tech Index fell 1.71 percent.
Bond yields increased on concerns about longer-term increases in interest rates as the decline in European stocks deepened, pushing the benchmark index to a more than six-month low.
On Wednesday, UK shares fell due to a sell-off in mining equities as the prices of the majority of metals continued to decline, but Tesco climbed due to an optimistic profit prediction.
Although its sales growth is projected to decrease, KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. downgraded Apple Inc., noting that its shares are selling at close to all-time high valuation levels.
With reduced consumer spending and a difficult iPhone upgrade cycle, analyst Brandon Nispel said that “US sales are likely to struggle” and lowered his recommendation for Apple from overweight to sector weight. Furthermore, “international growth expectations for reacceleration may be aggressive,” he continued.
Although they have fallen more than 12% from their record high set in July, Apple shares are still up 33% so far this year despite the tech selloff that was spurred by worries about rising interest rates.
According to data from the agriculture ministry, Ukrainian grain exports have decreased from 8.99 million metric tonnes during the same period in 2022/23 to 6.82 million metric tonnes so far in 2023/24.
In comparison to the first three days of October 2022, when 297,000 tonnes of grain were exported, the ministry reported on Wednesday that 153,000 tonnes of grain were shipped.
The decline was not explained by the ministry.
The major causes of decreasing exports, according to traders and agricultural groups, are Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports on the Danube River and Ukrainian Black Sea ports being shut down.
We met Mr. Anand Desai (MD) and Mr. Ravish Chaudhary (Sr. manager – Corporate strategy & Investor Relations) of Anupam Rasayan (ANURAS), who emphasised that demand for the company’s products and solutions is driven primarily by increased demand as well as a shift in manufacturing operations from China. India’s CSM industry is predicted to grow at a double-digit CAGR over the next couple of years.
The company intends to introduce more than 12–14 compounds over the next 12–18 months while sharpening its focus on fluoro-based chemicals. Given 1) its emphasis on the commercialization of innovative products, 2) a substantial order book/LOI of Rs76,690 mn, and 3) growth in fluorination chemistry, we think ANURAS is well positioned to profit in the long run.
Some shocking information is revealed in a recent analysis by PwC India on the extent to which Indian businesses are adhering to the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, which went into force on August 11. Only 41 out of the 100 websites of Indian businesses that PwC India examined for its study addressed users’ rights to access, correct, and delete their personal information, and only 9 asked for users’ voluntary, specific, and informed consent.
90% of the organisations, according to the report, provided users with privacy notices when collecting data through their websites, but since providing users with such a notice is the first step for any organisation entering the digital world, the high level of compliance did not signify the presence of a reliable data privacy framework. 43% of firms did not use third-party data transfers, according to data.
Superdry, a failing clothes store in the UK, and Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail have formed a joint venture. According to the Reuters news agency, Superdry will pay $48.27 million to Reliance Retail for its intellectual property assets.
With this agreement, the joint venture vehicle will be owned by 24% and 76%, respectively, of Superdry and Reliance Retail, which collectively operate more than 18,000 outlets.
According to a government official, India’s government has reassured domestic steelmakers that it is looking into methods to allay their worries regarding the EU’s proposed taxes on imports of high-carbon commodities. The government also indicated that it is addressing the matter with its European counterparts.
In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Nagendra Nath Sinha, the top official at the federal Ministry of Steel, said, “We are talking with stakeholders and continuing to look at ways in which India’s trade interests in steel could be safeguarded.”