Opening Bell:
Gift Nifty is down by 35.0 points in the early morning trade, indicating a negative opening for Indian stock market.
Asia-Pacific stocks fell even after manufacturing data out of China bounced back to expansion territory. China’s factory activity in September expanded for the first time since April, according to official data over the weekend. China’s PMI climbed to 50.2 in September from 49.7, beating Reuters’ expectations of 50.0. China’s markets are closed for the weeklong Golden Week holiday. South Korean and Hong Kong’s markets are also closed for holidays. Japan’s Nikkei 225 traded 0.31% lower, while the Topix slipped 0.39%. Sentiment of Japan’s big manufacturers improved to a score of 9 in the third quarter, up from 5 in the previous three months, the closely-watched central bank tankan survey showed. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.22%.
Stock futures showed little change on Monday night, with S&P 500 futures up 0.03% and Nasdaq 100 futures gaining 0.05%. Dow Jones futures hovered near the flat line. October trading began after a weekend agreement in Washington averted a government shutdown. The Dow closed down 0.2% on Monday, while the S&P 500 edged up 0.01%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.67% for the fourth consecutive day. Meanwhile, Wall Street grapples with rising bond yields, with the 10-year Treasury yield reaching over 4.7%, its highest since October 2007. Investors are eager to move past a disappointing September, where all three major indexes closed lower. The S&P 500 alone lost nearly 5% during the month. Key economic reports, including the upcoming payroll reports and the start of earnings reporting season next week, are now in focus.
Stocks News:
👉 Maruti Suzuki: Maruti Suzuki India, the largest passenger car manufacturer in the country, reported its highest-ever monthly sales in September 2023. The company’s total wholesales last month increased 2.8% year-on-year (YoY) to 181,343 units from 176,306 units dispatched to dealers in the same month last year. Total sales in the month include domestic sales of 153,106 units, sales to other OEMs of 5,726 units and exports of 22,511 units.
👉 Ultratech Cement: UltraTech Cement reported consolidated sales of 26.69 million tonnes (MT) in the second quarter ended September 30, 2023, registering a growth of 15.54% from the same period last fiscal. The company produced 23.10 MT of cement in the July-September period a year ago, the Aditya Birla Group company said in a sales volume data filed on stock exchanges. The company’s total sales volume in Q2FY24 in the domestic market increased 15.37% to 25.66 MT from 22.24 MT in Q2FY23.
👉 JSW Infrastructure: India’s second largest commercial port operator will make its debut on the bourses in the T+3 timeline on October 3. The final issue price has been fixed at Rs 119 per share, while the date of allotment of IPO shares was set as September 28.
👉 Vedanta: Vedanta Limited approved the official demerger of its diversified business into six ‘separate’ listed companies, in a move to unlock value for its shareholders. The six independent listed entities consist of Vedanta Aluminium, Vedanta Oil & Gas, Vedanta Power, Vedanta Steel and Ferrous Materials, Vedanta base metals and Vedanta Ltd. The demerger of the metals-to-mining conglomerate is planned to be a vertical split.
👉 Foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth Rs 1,685.70 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) bought Rs 2,751.49 crore worth of stocks on September 29, provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed.
Domestic and International Events
- India’s goods and services tax (GST) collections reached Rs 1.63 lakh crore in September, a 10% increase compared to the same period last year. The CGST component was Rs 29,818 crore, SGST Rs 37,657 crore, IGST Rs 83,623 crore, and cess Rs 11,613 crore. The government settled Rs 33,736 crore to CGST and Rs 27,578 crore to SGST from IGST.
- Car sales in India reached record highs in September, driven by strong consumer demand during the festive season coupled with the rollouts of new Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) such as Honda Elevate, Citroen C3 Aircross, Tata Nexon (facelifted version), etc. Industry analysts reckon that carmakers despatched around 3,63,733 units in September, the highest ever monthly sales in the history of the domestic passenger vehicle (PV) market. The monthly numbers of September crossed the 3,60,700 units delivered by carmakers in August. On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, sales were up 2.4 percent from 3,55,353 units sold in September 2022.
- Oil prices dropped approximately 2% on Monday, reaching a three-week low. This decline was attributed to the expiration of a higher-priced Brent contract, a strengthening US dollar, and profit-taking by traders. Concerns also arose due to forecasts of increased crude supplies and the impact of high interest rates on demand. As the new front-month, Brent futures for December delivery slid to $90.78 per barrel, marking a $1.42 (1.5%) decrease from Friday’s close and a 4% drop from where the November contract closed on Friday, which was the previous front-month. This represented the largest daily age decline for the Brent front-month since late May.
- Gold extended its decline for the sixth straight session on Monday to hit a near seven-month trough, as a robust dollar and prospects of higher US interest rates took the shine off bullion. Spot gold was down 0.8% at $1,835.40 per ounce, its lowest since March 10. U.S. gold futures slipped 0.7% to $1,853.00.
Key Equity Indices
| EMERGING | LATEST | % 1D |
| Hang Seng | 17,810 | 2.5 % |
| Shanghai Composite | 3,110 | 0.1 % |
| DEVELOPED | LATEST | % 1D |
| Dow Jones | 33,433 | (0.2) % |
| DAX | 15,247 | (0.9) % |
| FTSE 100 | 7,511 | (1.3) % |
| Nikkei | 31,760 | (0.3) % |
| Straits Times | 3,209 | (0.3) % |
