After trading in the negative territory during post noon trading session, the Indian equity markets remained range bound and closed the day in the red. While the BSE-Sensex today closed lower by 63 points, the NSE-Nifty closed lower by 19 points. Midcaps and Smallcaps too closed on a weak note today. While the BSE Mid Cap index closed lower by 0.2%, the BSE Small Cap index was lower by 0.4%. FMCG and oil and gas stocks were the biggest losers today.
As regards global markets, Asian indices closed mixed today. The rupee was trading at Rs 61.7 to the dollar at the time of writing.
Auto stocks ended the day on a strong note. Ashok Leyland and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M) were the biggest gainers while Maruti was the biggest loser. The stock of Hero Motocorp rose sharply before closing flat today after the company disclosed bumper sales in the month of September. Sales for the month of September rose by 30% YoY with the company selling 6 lakh units. The sales growth was boosted by the upcoming festivities. As an example, the company sold 1.7 lakh units in retail sales during the first six days of Navratri itself. With new products about to get launched and Diwali being on the cards, sales for the month of October may also remain buoyant.
As per a leading business daily, credit rating agency Fitch has upgraded its GDP growth outlook for India to 5.6% for 2014. The agency has expressed that it expects better investment climate in India in the years ahead. In fact, it has pegged India to be the only country amongst the BRIC group (Brazil, Russia, India, China) of countries where growth is expected to pick up in 2014. It further expects an increase to 6.5% in terms of GDP growth in the years 2015 and 2016. This on the back of an expected further improvement in business environment and the decreased political uncertainty since the new government has come to power.
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