Indian share markets pared most of the morning gains to end the last trading day of Samvat 2074 on a flat note. At the closing bell, BSE Sensex ended up by 41 points, while, NSE Nifty ended up by 6 points.
Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with consumer durables stocks, and metal sector witnessing maximum selling pressure. While IT stocks and realty stocks ended in green.
Globally, Asian stock markets finished mixed as of the most recent closing prices. The Nikkei 225 gained 1.1% and the Hang Seng rose 0.7%. The Shanghai Composite lost 0.2%. European markets are lower today with shares in France off the most. The CAC 40 is down 0.2% while London's FTSE 100 is off 0.2% and Germany's DAX is lower by 0.1%.
The rupee was trading at Rs 73 against them in the afternoon session.
In the news from the economy, oil prices dipped today as concerns that an economic slowdown may curb fuel demand growth overshadowed the reintroduction of sanctions on Iran.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at US$62.93 a barrel, down 0.3%, from their last settlement.
Reportedly, expectations of an economic slowdown in coming months was outweighing supply-side risks to crude markets from the reintroduced US sanctions against Iran, which started on Monday.
On the supply side, oil is in ample availability despite the sanctions against Iran.
Further, Washington has granted 180-day exemptions to eight importers, China, India, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Greece, Taiwan and Turkey. These are also Iran's biggest buyers, meaning Iran will be allowed to still export some oil for now.
At the same time, the output from the world's top-three producers, Russia the United States and Saudi Arabia, is rising.
The output from these three countries in October exceeded 33 million barrels per day (bpd) for the first time, meaning they alone meet more than a third of the world's almost 100 million bpd of crude oil consumption.
Almost every time, a rise or fall in the stock markets is invariably linked to crude oil prices.
Are Stock Market Returns Really Linked to Crude Oil Prices?
Logically, it seems right too. The rise in crude oil increases input costs for dependent firms. It also means rising inflation. Rising inflation means rising interest rates.
It also puts pressure on the government to cut excise duty, thereby impacting its revenues. We have already seen that happening. After all, there is an election year coming up.
As per him, focusing on quality stocks rather than crude oil will matter more in the long run.
Moving on to the news from the engineering sector. Voltas reported a net profit of Rs 1.1 billion for the September quarter, a jump of 12% year on year to the profit of Rs 1 billion that was reported a year ago.
The manufacturer of air conditioners posted revenue of Rs 14.2 billion for the quarter under review. This is a growth of 37% from the revenue reported during the September quarter of FY18.
At an operating level, the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was reported at Rs 1.1 billion against Rs 0.9 billion that the company reported last year. This is a rise of 25%.
Meanwhile, the operating margin was reported at 7.6%, down from 8.4% year on year.
Voltas share price ended the day down by 3.2%.
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