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Indian equity benchmarks surrendered all of their intra-day gains to end marginally lower amid bouts of volatility on Tuesday. Broader markets closed deep in the red. Domestic markets started the day’s trade at fresh all-time highs, as traders got encouragement with Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje’s statement that the Centre has infused Rs 1,31,000 crore to boost agriculture and allied sectors with special emphasis on becoming an export-oriented economy as India has tremendous potential to satiate global demand. Additional optimism also came after preliminary data of the commerce ministry showed that the country's exports rose by 40.5 per cent to $15.13 billion during October 1-14 on account of healthy performance by key sectors such as petroleum products, engineering and chemicals. Sentiments remained positive with Crisil Ratings’ report stating that the private industrial capital expenditure (capex) appears to be getting into a whole new cycle after the COVID-19 pandemic hiccup, driven by conducive government support through policy measures such as the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme and reduced tax rates and accommodative monetary policies and lower interest rates.

However, markets turned red with minutes left before the closing bell, even as the Reserve Bank of India in its latest monthly bulletin ‘October 2021’ stating that amidst an accentuation of global risks, the Indian economy is picking up steam, although the recovery is uneven and trudging through soft patches. The step up in vaccination, slump in new cases/mortality rates and normalising mobility has rebuilt confidence. Market participants also failed to take support from a private report stating that Indian startups received a record funding of $10.9 billion across 347 deals in the third quarter of 2021. This is twice the amount of funding received in Q3 of the calendar year 2020 and an approximate increase of 41 percent compared to the second quarter of 2021. Meanwhile, observing that a continued coordinated policy response to fight COVID-19 including through vaccines is critical to overcome the ongoing health crisis, a top IMF official has said that addressing the long-standing reform priorities and improving education outcomes will be key to help minimise adverse medium-term impacts from the pandemic and further boost long-term growth in India.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mostly higher on Tuesday, with support from crude oil prices and technology stocks that mirrored their peers on Nasdaq. Solid economic data also triggered some buying interest after a notable improvement in U.S. homebuilder confidence in October. The mood also remained cautious amid the coronavirus situation in the region. European markets were trading mostly in green, as investors awaited more earnings for fresh insight into how companies are faring with inflation and supply-chain disruptions. Back home, on the sectoral front, aviation industry stocks were in focus as the country's aviation regulator -- the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said around 70.66 lakh domestic passengers travelled by air in the month of September, 5.44 per cent higher than 67.01 lakh who travelled in August. Banking shares were in focus as Global rating agency Moody's upgraded the outlook on the Indian banking system from ‘Negative’ to ‘Stable’ on the back of stabilising asset quality and improved capital.

Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 49.54 points or 0.08% to 61,716.05 and the CNX Nifty was down by 58.30 points or 0.32% to 18,418.75.       

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 62,245.43 and 61,594.29, respectively and there were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.         

The broader indices ended in red; the BSE Mid cap index fell 1.98%, while Small cap index was down by 1.79%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.34%, TECK up by 1.10%, Capital Goods up by 0.57%, Energy up by 0.18% while, Realty down by 4.56%, FMCG down by 3.12%, Consumer Durables down by 2.85%, PSU down by 2.69%, Basic Materials down by 2.65% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tech Mahindra up by 4.12%, Larsen & Toubro up by 3.26%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.99%, Infosys up by 1.63%, HDFC Bank up by 1.13%. On the flip side, ITC down by 6.23%, Hindustan Unilever down by 4.06%, Titan Company down by 3.97%, Tata Steel down by 3.10% and UltraTech Cement down by 3.01% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, in order to boost agriculture and allied sectors, Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje said that the Centre has infused Rs 1,31,000 crore with special emphasis on becoming an export-oriented economy as India has tremendous potential to satiate global demand. Karandlaje e-inaugurated various projects of the public works department, costing Rs 519.50 lakh and laid e-foundation stones of different projects worth Rs 198.2 lakh. She also inaugurated a pasteurised compost unit under the Trikuta mushroom corridor project at Burmal.

The Union minister of state for agriculture and farmers welfare said the Centre under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen to uplift the agriculture community by providing financial as well as technological support under various schemes run by the central government. While highlighting the achievements of India in the agriculture sector, she said that India is making remarkable progress in this field which has further improved its ranking in terms of exporting agriculture-based products. She added India now stands at the ninth position globally.

Projecting the recent stride made by India in agriculture production, the minister said the agriculture sector is now contributing over 20 per cent in India's GDP which is expected to grow further. She said that for smooth functioning of farmer producer organisation (FPO), a separate corpus will be created through which the staff appointed shall be remunerated besides provision of low interest rate soft loans and subsidies shall be made. The minister emphasised on the need for technological interventions like mechanised farming, branding, marketing, processing, value addition to farm products etc so that farmers could get remunerative prices for their produce.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 18,604.45 and 18,377.70 and there were 16 stocks advancing against 34 stocks declining on the index.   

The top gainers on Nifty were Tech Mahindra up by 4.26%, Larsen & Toubro up by 3.33%, Infosys up by 1.75%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.61% and Bajaj Finserv up by 1.38%. On the flip side, ITC down by 6.27%, Tata Motors down by 4.88%, Eicher Motors down by 4.51%, Hindustan Unilever down by 3.64% and Titan Co down by 3.58% were the top losers.

European markets were trading mostly in green; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 3.95 points or 0.05% to 7,207.78 and Germany’s DAX increased 6.94 points or 0.04% to 15,481.41, while France’s CAC decreased 3.14 points or 0.05% to 6,669.96.

Asian markets ended mostly higher on Tuesday despite disappointing data from China and the United States. Data showed the Chinese economy grew by 4.9% in the third quarter, falling short of expectations. Japanese shares boosted up by heavyweight technology stocks in spite of concerns prevailed ahead of the domestic earnings season starting next week. Seoul shares gained as South Korea's new corona-virus cases stayed below 2,000 for the 11th straight day amid progress in vaccinations. Meanwhile, markets in Malaysia were closed for the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday celebration.

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