The domestic equity benchmarks ended with modest losses on Wednesday, sliding for the fifth trading session. The Nifty slipped below 17,000 level after hitting the day's high of 17,211.35 in early trade. Metal, consumer durables and healthcare stocks were in demand while bank, media and financial services shares dragged lower.
As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 344.29 points or 0.59% to 57,555.90. The Nifty 50 index fell 71.15 points or 0.42% to 16,972.15. In five consecutive sessions, the Sensex slipped 4.63% while the Nifty fell 4.41%.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.02% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.10%.
The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,553 shares rose and 1,963 shares fell. A total of 127 shares were unchanged.
IPO Update:
The initial public offer (IPO) of Global Surfaces received bids for 8.90 crore shares as against 77.49 lakh shares on offer, according to stock exchange data at 15:33 IST on Wednesday (15 March 2023). The issue was subscribed 11.49 times.
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The issue opened for bidding on Monday (13 March 2023) and it will close on Wednesday (15 March 2023). The price band of the IPO is fixed at Rs 133-140 per share. An investor can bid for a minimum of 100 equity shares and in multiples thereof.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Metal index rose 1.80% to 5,616.50. The index witnessed bargain hunting after declining 2.91% in the past three trading sessions.
Adani Enterprises (up 5.46%), Jindal Stainless (up 2.22%), Tata Steel (up 2.16%), National Aluminium Company (up 1.76%), Jindal Steel & Power (up 1.44%), JSW Steel (up 0.94%), Hindalco Industries (up 0.73%), Steel Authority of India (up 0.63%), APL Apollo Tubes (up 0.62%) and Welspun Corp (up 0.45%) advanced.
On the other hand, Ratnamani Metals & Tubes (down 0.59%), Hindustan Zinc (down 0.05%), edged lower.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Reliance Industries (RIL) declined 1.69%. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the acquisition of METRO Cash and Carry India by Reliance Retail Ventures, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. In a statement released yesterday, the competition regulator said: The proposed combination involves acquisition of 100% of the issued and paid-up equity share capital of METRO Cash and Carry India (target) by the Reliance Retail Ventures (acquirer). Shares of index heavyweight RIL hit 52-week low of Rs 2,228 during intraday today.
Nazara Technologies added 0.44% after the company announced that Kiddopia Inc and Mediawrkz Inc have been given unrestricted access to the entire amount of $7.75 million that was held at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). From this amount, a sum of $7.25 million (about Rs 60 crore) has been transferred to bank accounts outside of SVB and the balance amount of $0.5 million (about Rs 4 crore) remains in SVB accounts for unrestricted operational use.
Cipla rose 0.84%. The company and its wholly owned subsidiaries, Cipla (EU), UK and Meditab Holdings, Mauritius, have entered into a Share Purchase Agreement with Africa Capitalworks SSA 3 for sale of 51.18% stake held in Cipla Quality Chemical Industries (CQCIL), Uganda. Subsequent to the sale, CQCIL will cease to be a subsidiary of the company.
TVS Motor Company fell 1.35%. The company said that its board has approved the allotment of non convertible debentures (NCDs) aggregating to Rs 125 crore on private placement basis. The tenure of the NCDs is 3 years and date of maturity is on 13 March 2026.
RailTel Corporation of India gained 1.81%. The company has received the work order from Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) for Supply, Installation, Integration, Testing and Commissioning of IT infrastructure in green field Data Centre at New Delhi and Bengaluru along with Training and Support amounting to Rs. 287.57 crore (including taxes).
PNC Infratech rose 0.88%. PNC Infratech has been declared the L1 (Lowest) bidder for a Highway Project from Pachmon village to Anarbansalea village, 'Package 6' under Bharatmala Pariyojana in Bihar on Hybrid Annuity Mode from NHAI with a Bid Project Cost of Rs. 1260 crore.
Paras Defence and Space Technologies added 1.98% after the firm said that it has entered into MoU with Israel based-CONTROP Precision Technologies, to create new opportunities and expand both parties' business in the Indian and Global Defence sector.
KPIT Technologies surged 8.79% after the company announced its partnership with Honda to realize the journey of Honda's Software-Defined Mobility (SDM).
Ramkrishna Forgings jumped 7.06% after the company's consortium with Titagarh Wagons emerged as the lowest (L-1) bidder for supply of forged wheels to the Ministry of Railways, Government of India. The consortium has to manufacture and supply around 15,40,000 wheels to the Indian Railways over a period of twenty years.
GMR Airports Infrastructure advanced 4.56% after the company said that its board will consider raising of funds through appropriate instruments in a meeting on Friday, 17 March 2023.
KPI Green Energy rallied 4.11% after the company received the commissioning certificate from Gujarat Energy Development Agency (GEDA) for capacity of 31 MWdc solar power project under its Captive Power Producer (CPP) segment.
Global Markets:
The Dow Jones futures were down 161 points, indicating a negative opening in the US stock market today.
European markets tumbled while Asian stocks advanced across the board on Wednesday.
The U.K. is gearing up for Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's "Spring Budget" today in which he's expected to announce key pension and child-care reforms as the country continues to battle a cost of living crisis.
China's industrial output rose 2.4% in the January to February period, official data showed. Retail sales rose 3.5% for the same period. The People's Bank of China kept the rate on 481 billion yuan of one-year medium-term lending facility loans at 2.75%.
US stocks bounced back on Tuesday as largely on-target inflation data and easing jitters over contagion in the banking sector cooled expectations regarding the size of the rate hike at the Federal Reserve's policy meeting next week.
Underlying US consumer prices rose in February by the most in five months. The consumer price index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.5% last month and 5.5% from a year earlier, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data out Tuesday. The overall CPI climbed 0.4% in February and 6% from a year earlier.
Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday revised its outlook on the US banking system to "negative" from "stable", citing heightened risks for the sector after the rapid unraveling of SVB Financial Group fueled fears of contagion. Moody's also said it was expecting the Federal Reserve to continue tightening monetary policy, in contrast to some others who are expecting the bank collapses this month to reshape the trajectory for interest rate hikes.
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