Asian share markets fell marginally today as the rally in global equities took a breather. The Nikkei is trading up by 0.5% and the Hang Seng is trading down by 0.1%.
In US stock markets, the main indices dipped slightly in overnight deals as investors switched their focus from vaccine hopes to disappointing US jobs data and new Covid-19 lockdowns.
The US Labor Department said 7,78,000 people filed for unemployment benefits for the first time last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down by 0.6% while the Nasdaq ended up by 0.5%.
Back home, Indian share markets have opened the day on a positive note.
Market participants will today track the meeting of market regulator-appointed Secondary Market Advisory Committee which is expected to discuss big bang reforms for the capital market.
According to reports, one of the agendas for today's meeting is the discussion over reducing settlement days to T+1.
The government is also scheduled to release its September quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data on 27 November. The Indian economy is expected to have seen a recovery in the September quarter after contracting a massive 23.9% in April-June.
The BSE Sensex is trading up by 101 points. The NSE Nifty is trading higher by 37 points.
Bajaj Auto and L&T are among the top gainers today.
The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index have opened the day up by 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.
Sectoral indices are trading on a mixed note with stocks in the capital goods sector and healthcare sector witnessing maximum buying interest.
The rupee is trading at 73.78 against the US$.
Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading up by 0.2% at Rs 48,600 per 10 grams.
To know more about gold, you can check out our detailed article on investing in gold here: How to Invest in Gold?
Note that Indian share markets fell sharply yesterday. One of the reason for yesterday's fall was the new rules on margins announced by the regulator.
From 1st December, new margin rules will apply in the Indian stock market.
In his latest video, Vijay Bhambwani talks about this topic. As per Vijay, from 1st December, your life as a trader will get harder.
For a detailed discussion on this important topic, tune in to Vijay's video:
In news from the engineering sector, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has won the contract to build India's longest river bridge. The upcoming bridge will be 19-20 km long and will connect two states in the northeast.
The new flyover will majorly reduce the distance between the two states by 250 kms.
L&T Construction, the construction arm of the conglomerate, has secured the contract and will execute the project.
Recently, L&T also won a mega-contract worth more than Rs 70 billion from the National High-Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) to construct the 87.57 km long stretch of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail or the bullet train project.
L&T share price has opened the day up by 1.6%.
In news from the banking sector, Lakshmi Vilas Bank is among the top buzzing stocks today.
National Stock Exchange (NSE) yesterday announced that shares of Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) will be suspended for trading from November 26.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had also issued a press release in which it said that Lakshmi Vilas Bank branches will operate as DBS Bank India and the amalgamation will come into force from 27 November.
The Union Cabinet approved the merger of the LVB with DBS Bank India, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters, adding the decision will provide comfort to 2 million depositors and protect the services of 4,000 employees.
Customers, including depositors of the Lakshmi Vilas Bank will be able to operate their accounts as customers of DBS Bank India with effect from 27 November.
Consequently, the moratorium on LVB will cease to be operative from 27 November.
Earlier this month on November 17, the RBI had placed LVB under a one-month moratorium till December 16, during which withdrawals for depositors have been capped at Rs 25,000.
Following this news, shares of LVB fell as much as 50% in the past seven trading sessions, amid negative reports surrounding the company.
Note that LVB is the third bank to be placed under moratorium since September last year after the co-operative bank PMC in 2019 and Yes Bank this March.
Speaking of Lakshmi Vilas Bank, if there is any private sector bank that has severely underperformed in the last two years, it has to be Lakshmi Vilas Bank.
Back in May 2019, we wrote an article around how we avoided a 60% loss in Lakshmi Vilas Bank.
Here's an excerpt from the article:
If you look at the shareholding pattern of LVB during the 2-year time frame between May 2017 to May 2019, retail investors have increased by 15%. The number of shares owned by them increased by 24%.
A typical example of retail investors catching a falling knife!
You can also read out latest Profit Hunter issue on the above fiasco here: Lesson for Investors from the Lakshmi Vilas Bank Fiasco.
In other news, bank credit growth decelerated to 5.8% in the September quarter from 8.9% in the year-ago period, according to the RBI data.
Aggregate deposits of banks rose 11% YoY in the July-September period as compared to 10.1% growth a year ago, according to the 'Quarterly Statistics on Deposits and Credit of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs), September 2020' - released by the Reserve Bank of India.
The deceleration in bank credit growth was seen across all the population groups.
Annual growth in credit by private sector banks moderated significantly to 6.9% in September 2020 from 14.4% a year ago, whereas it increased marginally for public sector banks to 5.7% from 5.2% over the same period last year.
Speaking of the banking sector, note that the sector was one of the worst affected sectors in the Indian stock market when Covid-19 struck.
Banking stocks were severely punished. No investor wanted to touch them even with a 10-ft pole.
However, sentiment have changed now as investors are chasing banking stocks like never before.
Have a look at the monthly returns of major sectors for the month of March and October 2020 in the chart below:
Banks were among major losers with a cut of 34% in the month of March. Cut to October, they are the biggest gainers for the month with more than 11% returns!
We are closely tracking this sector and will keep you updated on all the top news from this space. Stay tuned.
And to know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.
For information on how to pick stocks that have the potential to deliver big returns, download our special report now!
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