 "Markets close at new record high as Oct trade deficit of $13.3 bn boosts sentiment")
Indian equity markets, which were in a consolidationmodeall day, got a boosttoward the fag-end after positivetrade datafor October. The trade deficit at $13.35 billion waslower than expected due to a sharp decline in oil imports.
While the Sensex closed at a new record high of 28177.88, up 0.5 percent, the Nifty closed above 8400 for the first time at 8430, up 0.5 percent.
Earlier in the day, the government data showed that October exports fell 5 percent on year to $26.09 billion andimports grew 3.6 percent to $39.45 billion.
The country’s oil importbill stood at $12.36 billion, downby 19.2 percent dueto the low crude oil prices.However,this was nearly offset by an18.9 percent rise in non-oil imports to$27 billion.Gold imports were higher by 283% at $4.18 billion andsilver imports 136 percent at $686 million.
On a month-on-month basis, Octobertrade deficit came in 6% lower. Exports were down 9.7 percent and imports fell by 8.5 percent. Oil imports came in 14.8 percent lower while non-oil imports fell 5.4 percent.
Top Nifty gainers were SBI, Bank of Baroda and Tata Motors, while JSPL, DLF and UltraTech Cement were the top losers for the day