Share markets in India are presently trading marginally lower.
The BSE Sensex is trading down by 156 points, down 0.4%, at 39,457 levels.
Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading down by 37 points.
IndusInd Bank and ICICI Bank are among the top gainers today. Reliance and Divi's Laboratories are among the top losers today.
The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.3%.
The BSE Small-Cap index is trading down by 0.5%.
On the sectoral front, stocks from the energy sector are witnessing most of the selling pressure.
On the other hand, stocks from the banking sector are witnessing most of the buying interest.
US stock futures are trading higher today, indicating a positive opening for Wall Street indices.
Nasdaq Futures are trading up by 25 points (up 0.2%), while Dow Futures are trading up by 62 points (up 2%).
The rupee is trading at 74.32 against the US$.
Gold prices are trading flat at Rs 50,670 per 10 grams.
In global markets, gold prices edged higher today amid volatile trade as investors remained cautious ahead of the US presidential election and a Federal Reserve policy meeting. Tracking this volatility, gold prices in domestic markets fell for the third time in four days.
Note that gold prices are now down Rs 6,000 in Indian markets from their August highs. However, the precious metal may benefit from safe-haven buying amid increasing challenges to the global economy
Speaking of the precious yellow metal, how lucrative has gold been as a long-term investment in India?
The chart below shows the annual returns on gold over the last 15 years...
As you can see, barring just two years - 2013 and 2015, gold has delivered positive returns in 13 of the last 15 years.
The recent price volatility in the bullion market has rattled many traders. Even with the recent volatility in prices, gold remains among the best-performing commodities this year to combat the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
Moving on to stock-specific news...
Among the buzzing stocks, today is Reliance.
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) saw its quarterly profit decline by 6% year-on-year (YoY) for the quarter ended September as demand for fuel remained subdued and margins continued to fall amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Fuel demand fell sharply after countries all over the world imposed lockdowns, to curb the spread of the coronavirus which put the company's margins under pressure.
However, it was cushioned by the performance of the company's retail and telecom units - Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio. Both consumer-focused units have attracted massive investor interest in recent months, tying into the company's larger plan of building a technology giant on the lines of Amazon and Tencent.
Reliance Jio, which houses all of the company's digital ventures, saw profit rise 13.2%YoY on the back of higher subscriber addition and tariff hikes. Retail revenue fell 4% but was higher sequentially as customers continued to purchase groceries online despite lockdown curbs.
After a funding blitz that saw Jio Platforms raise over Rs 1500 billion from investors like Facebook, Google, and Intel, the company is now trying to replicate the same with its retail unit.
Reliance Retail has raised over Rs 370 billion in over a month as the company tries to upend online retail, content streaming, digital payments, education, and health care in one go. This will allow the company to shift RIL's dependence on legacy businesses like refining to consumer units.
How this pans out remains to be seen. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on all the news from this space. Stay tuned.
At the time of writing, the Reliance share price was trading down by 5.3% on the BSE.
Speaking of the stock markets, Senior Research Analyst at Equitymaster, Apurva Sheth shares a chart that you must see before the US Presidential elections, in his latest video for Fast Profits Daily.
In the video below, Apurva talks about how short-term traders have withdrawn money from the stock market recently in anticipation of the result. However, smart traders are not too worried. They have seen this before and have a handy blueprint for this situation.
So, what is this blueprint?
Tune in here to find out more:
Moving on to news from the IPO space...
Equitas Small Finance Bank Lists At 6% Discount to Issue Price
Shares of Equitas Small Finance Bank made a tepid debut today, as the scrip got listed at Rs 31, a 6% discount to its issue price of Rs 33.
The bank is one of the leading players in the small finance bank space in India and offers a diversified portfolio of products comprising small business loans, microfinance, and vehicle finance. The initial public offering (IPO), which was sold between October 20 and 22, was subscribed 1.9 times in the three-day bidding process, much less compared to the issues that hit the market prior to it. The high net-worth individual (HNI) quota of shares in the IPO remained undersubscribed at 22%The IPO could not draw higher a subscription level as investors feared further stake reduction by promoters to meet the regulatory requirements of the Reserve Bank India (RBI).
Note that RBI guidelines require Equitas Holdings, the holding company, to cut back its stake in the bank to 40% by September 2021, when it completes five years of operations.
The IPO of the bank had come primarily as an effort by the management to meet with the listing norm of the RBI that calls for a mandatory listing of SFBs within three years from the date of reaching a net worth of Rs 5 billion.
This is the third small finance bank to list on the exchanges after Ujjivan Small Finance Bank and AU Small Finance Bank.
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