Equity indices at day's low; IT stocks buck trend

The main indices traded at the day's low with major losses in early afternoon trade. The Nifty recovered after briefly slipping below the crucial 17,000 mark. Barring the Nifty IT index, all the sectoral indices on the NSE were in the red.

At 12:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, tumbled 782.12 points or 1.35% at 57,119.13. The Nifty 50 index lost 237.95 points or 1.38% at 17,010.50.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 1.85% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index shed 1.4%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 959 shares rose and 2,262 shares fell. A total of 112 shares were unchanged.

New Listing:

Shares of Rategain Travel Technologies were currently trading at Rs 369.05 on the BSE, at a discount of 13.16% as against the issue price of Rs 425. The scrip was listed at Rs 364.80, representing a discount of 14.16% to the initial public offer (IPO) price. So far, the scrip has hit a high of 382 and a low of 342.30. Over 5.73 lakh shares of the company have changed hands in the counter till now.

The IPO of Rategain Travel Technologies was subscribed 17.41 times. The issue opened for bidding on 7 December 2021 and it closed on 9 December 2021. The price band of the IPO was fixed at Rs 405-425. The offer comprised of a fresh issue up to Rs 375 crore and an offer for sale of up to 2,26,05,530 equity shares.

RateGain Travel Technologies is engaged in offering travel and hospitality solutions for hotels, airlines, online travel agents (OTAs), meta-search companies, vacation rentals, package providers, car rentals, rail, travel management companies, cruises, and ferries.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, surged 5.08% to 16.7025. The Nifty 30 December 2021 futures were trading at 17,040.30, at a premium of 40.3 points as compared with the spot at 17,000.

The Nifty option chain for 30 December 2021 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 40.4 lakh contracts at the 18,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 49.1 lakh contracts was seen at 17,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index was up 0.99% at 36,520.70. The index has risen 2.19% in two sessions.

Infosys (up 2.87%), Larsen & Toubro Infotech (up 1.86%), Wipro (up 1.16%), Mphasis (up 1.15%), Coforge (up 0.78%), HCL Technologies (up 0.7%) and Mindtree (up 0.5%) were top gainers in IT space.

IT stocks bucked the trend after consulting major Accenture on Thursday reported strong first-quarter results and raised business outlook for fiscal 2022. US-based Accenture reported financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2022, ended 30 November 2021, with revenues of $15 billion, an increase of 27% in both U.S. dollars and local currency over the same period last year.

Net income for the quarter was $1.82 billion, compared with $1.52 billion for the first quarter last year. Excluding after-tax investment gains of $97 million, net income for the first quarter of fiscal 2021 was $1.43 billion. For fiscal 2022, Accenture expects revenue growth to be in the range of 19% to 22% in local currency, compared with 12% to 15% previously. It continues to expect operating margin for the full fiscal year to be in the range of 15.2% to 15.4%, an expansion of 10 to 30 basis points from fiscal 2021.

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