Barometers pare some gains; metal stocks decline

The key equity barometers pared some gains in mid-morning trade. The Nifty traded above the 17,850 mark. Metal stocks witnessed some bit of profit booking after advancing in the past three sessions.

At 11:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 189.95 points or 0.32% to 59,946.79. The Nifty 50 index gained 44.95 points or 0.25% to 17,781.90.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.22% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index lost 0.20%.

The market breadth was almost even. On the BSE, 1617 shares rose and 1607 shares fell. A total of 151 shares were unchanged.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Metal index slipped 1.43% to 5,885.10. The index had gained 3.86% in the past three sessions.

Steel Authority of India (down 3.09%), Jindal Steel & Power (down 3.08%), Tata Steel (down 2.16%), Hindustan Copper (down 1.99%) and JSW Steel (down 1.73%) were the top losers.

Among the other losers were Hindalco Industries (down 1.64%), National Aluminium Company (down 1.47%), Vedanta (down 1.4%), Jindal Stainless (down 0.88%) and Hindustan Zinc (down 0.04%).

Concurrently, Adani Enterprises (up 0.83%), Ratnamani Metals & Tubes (up 0.58%) and APL Apollo Tubes (up 0.49%) edged higher.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks edged lower as the Bank of Japan's left its benchmark interest rate unchanged.

Japan's central bank left interest rates unchanged on Friday. The Bank of Japan also said it would purchase necessary amounts of Japanese government bonds at a fixed rate in order to keep 10-year JGB yields at 0%.

"The Bank will support financing, mainly of firms, and maintain stability in financial markets, and will not hesitate to take additional easing measures if necessary, it reportedly said in its monetary policy statement.

Meanwhile, Japan's jobless rate rose to 2.6% in September, while the availability of jobs improved for the ninth straight month to two and a half year high, government data showed on Friday. Analysts reportedly expected unemployment to stay unchanged from August at 2.5%.

The jobs-to-applicants ratio stood at 1.34, labour ministry data showed, higher than 1.32 in August and marking its highest since March 2020.

In US, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq posted losses on Thursday, as investors contended with solid economic data and a mixed bag of corporate earnings.

The U.S. economy grew at a 2.6% annualized pace for the period, the Bureau of Economic Analysis report showed. The chain-weighted price index, a cost-of-living measure that is adjusted to reflect changing consumer behavior, rose 4.1% for the quarter. Headline inflation rose 4.2%, down sharply from 7.3%, according to a gauge the Federal Reserve uses.

The European Central Bank announced Thursday a 75-basis-point interest rate hike, its third consecutive increase this year. The latest rate hike takes the ECB's main benchmark from 0.75% to 1.5%. The ECB also announced that it was changing the terms and conditions of its targeted longer-term refinancing operations or TLTRO.

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