The key equity indices pared some of the gains and edged lower in mid-morning trade. The Nifty traded again slipped below the 17,700 level after hitting the day's high at 17,712.35 in morning trade. Pharma shares witnessed some bit of selling pressure.
At 11:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 116.99 points or 0.19% to 60,107.47. The Nifty 50 index lost 28.90 points or 0.16% to 17,682.55.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.05% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.09%.
TCNS Clothing Co. (up 7.06%), Balrampur Chini Mills (up 5.63%), Aegis Logistics (up 4.75%), NCC (up 4.49%) and Vijaya Diagnostic Centre (up 4.19%) were the top broader market gainers.
Macrotech Developers (down 6.42%), Aptus Value Housing Finance India (down 4.24%), PB Fintech (down 4.29%), ZF Commercial Vehicle Control Systems India (down 2.91%), The Phoenix Mills (down 3.10%) were the top losers in the broader market segment.
The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,687 shares rose and 1,541 shares fell. A total of 145 shares were unchanged.
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Investor sentiment nosedived after Fed Chair Jerome Powell's stated that the central bank will likely need to raise interest rates for a longer period. He said that the Fed is all set to take larger rate hikes following strong economic data and will likely move in larger steps if future economic data indicates tougher measures to control inflation. This would mark a reversal of the central bank's actions over the last two meetings when it trimmed the size of its rate hikes from 75 basis points to 25 basis points.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Pharma index fell 0.62% to 11,734.35. The index had advanced 0.40% in the past two sessions.
Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries (down 1.56%), Gland Pharma (down 1.07%), Biocon (down 1.06%), Ipca Laboratories (down 1.01%) and Laurus Labs (down 0.93%) were the top losers.
Among the other losers were Glaxosmithkline Pharmaceuticals (down 0.85%), Abbott India (down 0.66%), Cipla (down 0.39%), Zydus Lifesciences (down 0.3%) and Divis Laboratories (down 0.22%).
On the other hand, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 1.03%), Granules India (up 0.81%) and Natco Pharma (up 0.51%) turned up.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Shares of seven Adani Group edged higher in trade after the Adani Group said its promoters have prepaid share backed financing of Rs 7,374 crore ahead of its latest maturity in April 2025.
A total of 23.3 crore shares will be released as part of the latest prepayment, the conglomerate said on Tuesday (7 March 2023). Along with the repayments done earlier in the month of February, Adani has prepaid $2,016 million of share backed financing, which is consistent with promoters' commitment to prepay all share backed financing before 31 March 2023.
Adani Enterprises (up 2.25%) and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (up 1.46%) advanced. Concurrently, Adani Wilmar, Adani Total Gas, Adani Green Energy, Adani Transmission and Adani Power were up 5% each.
PVR shed 0.23%. The cinema chain operator on Monday (6 March 2023) announced the opening of 11 screen multiplex in city of Chennai at Phoenix Marketcity, Tamil Nadu.
Caplin Point Laboratories rose 0.72%. The company said that its subsidiary, Caplin Steriles has received final approval from US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for Thiamine Hydrochloride Injection. Thiamine Hydrochloride Injection is effective in the treatment of Thiamine (Vitamin B1) deficiency or beriberi, a serious condition caused by prolonged lack of Vitamin B1. According to IQVIA (IMS Health), the drug had US sales of approximately $38 million for the 12 month period ending September 2022.
Global markets:
Asian stock markets were trading lower on Wednesday, after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday cautioned that interest rates may need to be higher than expected.
Japan's seasonally adjusted current account balance rose to 216.3 billion yen ($1.57 billion) in January, government data showed on Wednesday. The surplus in balance saw a sharp drop from December's balance of 1.18 trillion yen and November's balance of 1.92 trillion yen.
China on Tuesday saw exports fall by 6.8% in February in U.S. dollar terms and imports also declined 10.2%.
Overnight in the US, major stock indexes declined following Fed Chair Powell cautioning lawmakers that the central bank's terminal rate will likely be higher than previously anticipated due to stubbornly high economic data in recent weeks. Powell was on Capitol Hill Tuesday for the first part of his two-day semiannual monetary policy testimony before Congress.
The Dow Jones closed nearly 575 points lower and turned negative for 2023. The S&P 500 slid 1.53% to close below the key 4,000 threshold, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.25%. The sharp decline for stocks was accompanied by a spike in bond yields, with the rate on the 2-year Treasury surpassing 5% and touching the highest level since 2007.
Crude oil prices tumbled on fears of rate hike, weak Chinese data and strengthening dollar. Brent crude futures shed $2.89, or 3.4%, to settle at $83.29 a barrel.
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