Stock Market Live: Nifty, Sensex Erase Opening Gains As HDFC Bank, Bajaj Auto Share Prices Drag

Indians could be facing a CNG price hike of Rs 5 per kg or more, as reduced allocation of domestic Administered Price Mechanism or APM gas for city gas distributors is expected to increase CNG firms' costs.

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Nifty Auto hit its lowest in a month with all its constituents trading in the red as of 9:44 a.m.

SRF share price fell to four month low of Rs 2,206.30 after UBS downgraded its rating to 'sell' from the previous 'buy', owing to prolonged growth difficulties in the company’s key segments. The brokerage has also slashed the target price to Rs 2,100 per share from Rs 2,700 apiece. This implies a downside of 8.77% from the previous closing price.

Bajaj Auto share price fell the most since March 2020 after it announced earnings for the quarter ended September as analysts flagged high valuations remain a concern.

Benchmark equity indices opened higher tracking gains in most global markets as shares of Infosys and Reliance led gains. Infosys shares gained ahead of its second quarter results and those of Reliance rose as the company announced record date of bonus issue.

At pre-open, the Nifty was at 25027.40, up 0.22% or 56.10 points and Sensex was at 81759.70, up 0.32% or 258.34 points. Vikas Jain, head of research at Reliance Securities said Nifty 50 has made a lower top on the daily charts and witnessing selling pressure from the higher range and breakdown below 24,900 levels would witness sharp profit booking.

"On the higher side crossover of 25,300 will trigger positive up move crossing its last week highs and a breakout to test 25,550 levels," he said.

Shares of Infosys Ltd., Reliance Industries Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd., Larsen & Toubro Ltd., and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. contributed the most to the gains.

While those of Bajaj Auto, HDFC Bank Ltd., Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., Nestle India Ltd., and Axis Bank Ltd. capped the upside.

Sectoral indices were mixed at open. Nifty Metal rose the most and Nifty Auto was top loser.

At pre-open, the Nifty was at 25027.40, up 0.22% or 56.10 points and Sensex was at 81759.70, up 0.32% or 258.34 points. Aditya Gaggar, director of Progressive Shares said Nifty continued to oscillate in the well-maintained range of 24,920-25,200 and a directional breakout is now necessary for a clear trend.

The yield on the 10-year bond opened flat at 6.77% after it closed at 6.77% on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg.

Rupee weakened by 2 paise to open at 84.02 against the US dollar as it closed at 84.00 on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg.

Jefferies has maintained 'buy' on KEI Industries with target of Rs 5,365, implying 22% upside. It said 2QFY25 EBITDA growth muted at 8% YoY, 15% below estimate and extra High Voltage cable sales declined 51% YoY, expect deliveries to pick up. The brokerage expects positive surprise in 12-18 months on Power T&D orders.

Net Profit rose 4.6% on quarter to Rs 423 crore on a revenue growth of 3.3% to Rs 3,536 crore. EBIT was up 6% sequentially at Rs 544 crore and EBIT margin was at 15.4%, slightly higher than 15% in previous quarter.

Government cut in domestic APM gas allocation to city gas distributers is a big negative for gas stocks including Mahanagar Gas, Indraprastha Gas, and Gujarat Gas, according to Citi Research. The brokerage estimates cut in allocation at 4 million metric standard cubic meter of gas per day and APM gas allocation cut by around 20%.

Lower APM gas allocation is negative for gas companies and no reversal in move to lead to gas cos sourcing gas from international markets.

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At 8:10 a.m., China's CSI 300 had erased all its gains and traded flat at 3,829.55 tracking housing minister Ni Hong press briefing. However, Hang Seng traded 1% higher after Hong Kong eased its mortgage rules to allow homebuyers to fork out lower downpayment, aiming to address a prolonged property slump in the city.

Emkay has downgraded Bajaj Auto to 'sell' from 'reduce' with a lower target price of Rs 9,500 vs Rs 8,300 earlier, implying downside of 18%. It said that Q2 results were marginally weak on lower ASPs while 2 wheeler retail growth has been muted in FY25YTD at 6.7% and Sep-Oct at 5.7%

The brokerage also noted that the company has lost market share in the fast-growing 125cc category.

Bajaj Auto's management expects FY25 industry growth to be closer to 5% than 8% due to ongoing below-par festive performance persisting but exports are recovering, albeit with key Nigeria market still 50% below its earlier peak. It said it prefers Hero on better risk reward and TVS on improved growth prospects.

Ni Hong, China's housing minister in a press briefing said that China vows to stabilize property market from declining further and aims to renovate 1 million houses in urban villages'. He said that 'Urban Village' renovation will help reduce unsold homes.

The November futures contract of WTI Crude traded 0.4% higher at $70.87 a barrel as of 7:36 a.m. and December contract of ICE Brent Crude rose 0.3% to $74.51 a barrel.

While most Asian indices tracked Wall Street and were higher in the early trade, Japan's Nikkei traded 0.6% down at 38,945.53 as of 7:15 a.m. after exports in September fell 1.7% against Reuters poll of 0.5% growth rate.

Investors will look for Australia's job data. Australia's ASX S&P 200 traded 0.8% higher at 8348.80, CSI 300 was up 0.7% to 3,859.73, and South Korea's Kospi was flat at 2,611.59. Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed more than 1% to 20,592.13.

Indices in the US closed higher Wednesday amid earnings announcements. The Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded its highest close as it ended 0.79% higher at 43,077.70. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite ended 0.47% and 0.28% higher at 5,842.47 and 18,367.08, respectively.

On Thursday, Traveler, Blackstone, Elevance Health, KeyCorp, and M&T Bank will announce their results.

The GIFT Nifty was trading at 25,020.00, down 0.2% or 50 points as of 6:47 a.m. Among other stocks, share price of Bajaj Auto Ltd. will react to its results, those of Axis Bank Ltd. will trade ahead of its earnings and RVNL's share price is expected to rise on order win.

On Wednesday, the NSE Nifty 50 and the S&P BSE Sensex extended their two-day losing streak on Wednesday, reflecting a broader sell-off across global markets. Most indices in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe fell sharply, influenced by overnight trading on Wall Street.

The Nifty 50 closed down 86.05 points, or 0.34%, at 24,971.30, while the Sensex fell by 318.76 points, or 0.39%, to settle at 81,501.36.

Foreign portfolio investors continued their selling streak in Indian equities for the 13th consecutive session on Wednesday, offloading stocks worth Rs 3,435.9 crore. In contrast, domestic institutional investors purchased stocks valued at Rs 2,256.3 crore, according to provisional data from the National Stock Exchange.

The Indian rupee strengthened by 4 paise, closing at 84.00 against the US dollar.