Indian equity benchmarks made flat-to-negative start of the holiday shortened week amid mixed cues from Asian counterparts. Sensex and Nifty were struggling for direction and hovering around neutral lines ahead of release of the HSBC Manufacturing PMI data for October later in the day. Some cautiousness came amid foreign fund outflows. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers of shares worth Rs 6,769.34 crore. Traders were concerned as RBI said that India's forex reserves dropped by $6.925 billion to $695.355 billion during the week ended October 24. Besides, festive buying spree unleashed by lower tax rates pushed gross GST collection to about Rs 1.96 lakh crore in October, registering a 4.6 per cent year-on-year growth -- the slowest rate so far this fiscal.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed in thin trade, as a temporary tariff truce materialized between the U.S. and China wherein China agreed to buy more U.S. energy. This gave fresh optimism about smooth trade relations between the two major oil consumers of the world.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 83959.90, up by 21.19 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 83609.54 and 83987.36. There were 14 stocks advancing against 16 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.29%, while Small cap index was up by 0.61%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 1.06%, Telecom up by 0.72%, Metal up by 0.68%, Healthcare up by 0.61% and Basic Materials up by 0.44%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.60%, IT down by 0.25% and TECK down by 0.03% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.11%, SBI up by 0.60%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.46%, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles up by 0.39% and Power Grid up by 0.31%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.04%, Bharat Electronics down by 1.15%, Titan Company down by 0.94%, Eternal down by 0.82% and Asian Paints down by 0.50% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) Chairman S Mahendra Dev has said that India should diversify exports to other countries, fasten free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations and also continue dialogues with Washington to conclude the proposed Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the US. He said despite protection policies and reduction in international trade, there are a lot of opportunities for India to increase its share in world merchandise trade. He noted that rule-based World Trade Organization (WTO) is always better than protectionism.

His remarks assume significance as the US is putting pressure on India to stop buying crude oil from Russia. The US, on October 22, imposed sanctions on Russia's two largest crude oil producers, Rosneft and Lukoil, barring all American entities and individuals from conducting business with them. The US has imposed 25 per cent tariffs on India as a penalty for purchasing oil from Russia. It is over and above the 25 per cent reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods entering American markets. Overall, Indian goods are attracting a steep 50 per cent additional import duties in the US.

Dev emphasised that India must have many more middle level manufacturing units with 200 to 500 workers. On manufacturing, among other things, small size of the firms with majority operating at less than 10 workers is the major problem. Observing that in 1700 AD, India's share in world GDP was 25 per cent, he said some estimates show that by 2043, the share of India in world GDP is likely to be 25 per cent. He said in the last three decades of post-reform India has an average growth rate of 6 to 6.5 per cent per annum.

Noting that investment rate is driver of growth, he said ‘India need to increase investment rate to 34 to 35 per cent from current 31 to 32 per cent to get 7 per cent growth.’ He said private sector should invest more in India as there is no twin balance sheet problem now. He added ‘Government capex is increasing. It will have multiplier effect’. He also said increase in rural and urban demand will facilitate more private investment. He said ‘in fact, in 2013, India was under ‘Fragile Five’ countries: Brazil, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey. But we have come out of the shocks and Indian economy is resilient and fastest growing economy in the world.’

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25751.45, up by 29.35 points or 0.11% after trading in a range of 25645.50 and 25753.30. There were 27 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining, 2 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Shriram Finance up by 4.49%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 1.97%, Interglobe Aviation up by 0.78%, ONGC up by 0.64% and SBI up by 0.62%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 2.97%, Bharat Electronics down by 1.16%, Titan Company down by 1.04%, Eternal down by 0.79% and Nestle down by 0.71% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Taiwan Weighted lost 33.41 points or 0.12% to 28,199.94 and Shanghai Composite weakened 7.58 points or 0.19% to 3,947.21. On the other hand, Hang Seng jumped 124.35 points or 0.48% to 26,031.00 and KOSPI was up by 86.20 points or 2.1% to 4,193.70.