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Sensex Trades Flat; Services PMI Rebounds
Thu, 5 Oct 01:30 pm

After opening the day in green, share markets in India witnessed choppy trades and pared early gains and are currently trading marginally below the dotted line. Sectoral indices are trading on a mixed note with stocks in the realty sector and stocks in the pharma sector leading the gains. Stocks in the energy sector are trading in red.

The BSE Sensex is trading down by 26 points (up 0.1%), and the NSE Nifty is trading down by 8 points (down 0.1%). Meanwhile, the BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.5%, while the BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.6%. The rupee is trading at 64.10 to the US$.

In news about the economy. India's services sector activity rebounded in Spetember after it was impacted in the previous two months, by the implementation of the goods and service tax (GST) regime in July. The country's predominant sector witnessed expansion after falling for two consecutive months, according to the Nikkei Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) survey by Markit.

The Services PMI is the reading of the country's services sector output and is updated monthly. A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while any score below the mark denotes contraction.

After contracting for two consecutive months, services PMI for September finished at 50.7, signalling a steady recovery from 47.5 in August.

Services PMI Recovers From GST Impact


Manufacturing production too rebounded from July's downturn, and the growth was sufficient to offset the contraction in services activity. According to the survey, the downturn in the previous months was often associated with the implementation of the GST, though there was also a mention of shortages of inputs.

Despite service providers retaining an optimistic view towards the year-ahead outlook for activities, overall sentiment decreased in August. Survey participants indicated that the new taxation system and advertising campaigns are anticipated to support growth, but there were worries about competitive pressures.

Both manufacturing and services firms continued to absorb some input cost pressures in September to attract demand, which is likely to keep inflation below the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) 4% medium-term target.

But the RBI kept its policy rate steady at a near seven-year low of 6% on Wednesday, reflecting its concern consumer inflation could accelerate further after hitting a five-month high of 3.4% in August.

Moving on to news from stocks in the automobiles sector. Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) share price is in focus today after State-run Energy Efficiency Services or EESL on Wednesday said that Mahindra and Mahindra matched the Tata Motor's lowest bid price to supply electric vehicles.

The bid was for the tender of supplying for the first phase of over 10,000 electric vehicles to EESL.

All 10,000 e-cars will be procured in two phases and under phase-I, 500 vehicles will be procured. Mahindra and Mahindra will supply 150 electric vehicles in the first phase. In Phase-2, 9,500 vehicles will be ordered post phase-I deliveries

Five hundred units will be supplied in phase one, the delivery date for which is November 30. M&M has qualified to supply 150 electric vehicles in the first phase, while Tata Motors will supply 250 units. The details on the remaining 100 in phase one will be revealed at a later date.

The purchase orders for supply of the remaining 9,500 electric vehicles will be done in phase two, which will be issued on completion of phase one deliveries. Both Tata Motors and M&M will get an opportunity to participate in the second phase.

At the time of writing, Mahindra & Mahindra share price was among the top gainers on the bourses, and was trading up by 1.5%.

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