Barometers off the day's low; auto shares edge lower

The key equity barometers managed to pare some losses in mid-morning trade. After hitting the day's low at 16,946, the Nifty managed to stage a strong bounce back and was currently trading above the 17,000 mark. Auto shares edge lower following the release of monthly auto sales figures.

At 11:23 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 262.88 points or 0.46% to 57,164.04. The Nifty 50 index lost 61.15 points or 0.36% to 17,033.20.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.07% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.32%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1,736 shares rose and 1,544 shares fell. A total of 197 shares were unchanged.

The sell-off being witnessed in equities across Asia follows the Wall Street's tumultuous performance last week amid concerns of a global recession grew amid tightening monetary policy and jitters in currency and bond markets.

On the macro front, India collected Rs 1.48 lakh crore as Goods and Services Tax (GST) in September, registering an increase of 26% from the same month last year, the finance ministry said on October 1. The September GST mop-up was 2.8% higher from August.

India's eight core infrastructure sectors' output grew 3.3% in August 2022, lowest in past nine months, as against 12.2% in the year-ago period, according to official data released on Friday. The previous low was in November 2021 at 3.2%. The production growth of eight infrastructure sectors - coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity - was 9.8% during April-August this fiscal, compared to 19.4% a year ago.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Auto index declined 1.23% to 12,543.55. The index had gained 1.62% to end at 12,699.30 on Friday.

Among the index components, TVS Motor Company (down 2.2%), Bharat Forge (down 1.57%), Tata Motors (down 1.37%), MRF (down 1%), Balkrishna Industries (down 0.93%), Bosch (down 0.55%) and Sona BLW Precision Forgings (down 0.4%) declined.

Ashok Leyland slipped 0.62%. The Hinduja Group company's total commercial vehicle (CV) sales climbed 84% to 17,549 units in September 2022 from 9,533 units sold in September 2021. Sequentially, the company's total CV sales jumped 24.28% in September 2022 from 14,121 units sold in August 2022.

Bajaj Auto fell 1.03%. The two wheeler maker's total sales declined 2% to 3,94,747 units in September 2022 compared with 4,02,021 units sold in September 2021. On a sequential basis, the company's total sales dropped by 1.71% from 4,01,595 units sold in August 2022.

Maruti Suzuki India slipped 2.34%. The car major recorded total sales of 1,76,306 units in September 2022, recording a jump of 104.1% as against 86,380 units sold in September 2021. The company said that since the sales volume in September 2021 was adversely impacted due to shortage of electronic components, a year on year comparison may not be meaningful.

Eicher Motors lost 2.2%. The company said that its unlisted subsidiary VE Commercial Vehicles had sold 6631 units of commercial vehicles in September 2022, which is higher by 9.2% as compared with 6070 units sold in September 2021.

Separately, Eicher Motors informed that it had recorded a growth of 145% in September 2022 with sales of 82,097 motorcycle units as against 33,529 units in the month of September 2021.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks are trading lower on Monday amid fears that central banks across the world will keep hiking rates until inflation is under control. China markets are closed for the Golden Week holiday, and South Korea's market is also closed.

Sentiment of Japan's large manufacturers worsened in the July-to-September quarter, according to the Bank of Japan's latest quarterly tankan business sentiment survey. The headline index for large manufacturers' sentiment came in at 8, a decline from the previous quarter's reading of 9.

US stocks dropped on Friday on concerns of hot inflation, rising interest rates and recession fears.

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