The broader market was trading lower. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.28% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was declined 0.94%.
Sellers outpaced buyers. On the BSE, 884 shares rose and 1796 shares fell. A total of 154 shares were unchanged.
Investors turned cautious after External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar was quoted by the media as saying that the current India-China border situation was "very serious". In a fresh sign of escalation, India and China reportedly accused each other of firing into the air on the border of western Himalayas.
The overnight selloff on Wall Street exacerbated the selling in domestic shares. Growing Sino-US tensions have contributed, to some extent, to the recent fall witnessed in the US markets. As per reports, US President Donald Trump launched a fresh broadside against China, promising a "decoupling" of the US economy from the Chinese one if he is re-elected in November.
COVID-19 Update:
Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 2,75,79,437 with 8,97,614 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. India reported 8,97,394 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 73,890 deaths while 33,98,844 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
Buzzing Index:
Also Read
The Nifty Auto index rose 0.31% to 7,912.60. The index had slipped 2% in the past three sessions.
Hero MotoCorp (up 1.46%), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 0.91%), TVS Motor Company (up 0.88%), Eicher Motors (up 0.51%) and Bajaj Auto (up 0.39%) advanced.
Bharat Forge (down 1.17%), Tata Motors (down 1.09%), Ashok Leyland (down 0.44%) and Maruti Suzuki (down 0.09%) declined.
The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), the industry apex body for auto dealers, released automobile retail sales data for August 2020 during market hours today, 8 September 2020. Total vehicle registration fell 26.81% to 11.88 lakh units in August 2020 as against 16.23 lakh units in August 2019. Total vehicle registration rose 3.97% to 11.88 lakh units in August 2020 as compared to 11.42 lakh units in July 2019.
Commercial vehicle (CV) space tanked 57.39% on Y-o-Y basis. CV registrations for August 2020 stood at 26,536 units on comparison to 62,270 units in January 2019. Passenger vehicle registration declined 7.12% to 1.78 lakh units on year-on-year (YoY) basis. Two-wheeler sales stood at 8.98 lakh units in August 2020 as against 12.60 lakh units in August 2019, registering a decline of 28.71%. Three-wheeler segment witnessed a 69.51% drop to 16,857 units in August 2020 as against 55,293 units in August 2019.
However, Tractor sales jumped 27.80% to 67,406 units in August 2020 over 52,744 units in August 2019.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Reliance Industries (RIL) gained 2.61% to Rs 2161.95 after the company said Silver Lake will invest Rs 7,500 crore in Reliance Retail Ventures at an equity value of Rs 4.21 lakh crore. Silver Lake's investment will translate into a 1.75% equity stake in Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) on a fully diluted basis, RIL said.
This marks the second billion dollar investment by Silver Lake in a Reliance Industries subsidiary after the $1.35 billion investment in Jio Platforms announced earlier this year. RRVL operates a retail business serving close to 640 million footfalls across its approximately 12,000 stores nationwide.
HDFC Asset Management Company fell 2.23% to Rs 2370.05 while Nippon Life India Asset Management slipped 1.22% to Rs 276.10.
According to data from Association of Mutual Funds of India (AMFI), August marked the fifth straight month of fall in inflows in the equity mutual funds. Net outflows from equity mutual funds stood at Rs 3,999.62 crore, compared to outflows of Rs 2,480.35 crore in July. Almost all the equity fund mutual fund categories saw redemptions. Equity mutual funds saw a total inflow of Rs 14,558.20 crore and outflow of Rs 18,557.82 crore. While the debt mutual fund schemes witnessed net outflow of Rs 3,907.53 crore, hybrid funds saw net ouflows of Rs 4,819.45 crore in August 2020.
JSW Steel rose 1.89% to Rs 286.45 after the company said that its crude steel production rose 5% to 13.17 lakh tonnes in August 2020 from 12.53 lakh tonnes in August 2019. Sequentially, the crude steel production increased 6% in August from 12.46 lakh tonnes in July 2020.
While the company's production of flat rolled products jumped 15% to 9.80 lakh tonnes, the production of long rolled products declined by 20% to 2.32 lakh tonnes in August 2020 over August 2019. "The average capacity utilisation during the month of August 2020 was 88%, the steel maker said.
Spencers Retail rose 2.10% to Rs 80.30. On a consolidated basis, the company reported a net loss stood at Rs 54.63 crore in Q1 June 2020 as compared with net loss of Rs 2.46 crore in Q1 June 2019. Net sales slipped 8.9% to Rs 547.07 crore in Q1 FY21 over Rs 600.76 crore in Q1 FY20. The gross margin for the quarter stood at Rs 112 crore. The EBITDA loss was at Rs 4 crore.
Natures Basket reported standalone turnover of Rs 108 crore and gross margin of 26.2% for the quarter ended 30 June 2020. Shashwat Goenka, the sector head of Spencer's Retail, has said: "I am delighted to share that Natures Basket has reported positive EBITDA within 1 year of acquisition due to successful integration efforts and has witnessed significant growth despite the challenging conditions by winning the trust of customers."
AstraZeneca Pharma India declined 2.96% to Rs 4090 after the UK-based parent AstraZeneca PLC voluntarily paused a randomized clinical trial of its coronavirus vaccine after a volunteer developed an unexplained illness. AstraZeneca PLC, which is developing the drug alongside the University of Oxford, is a frontrunner in the global race for a COVID-19 vaccine. As of 30 June 2020, UK-based AstraZeneca Pharma holds 75% stake in AstraZeneca Pharma India.
IRCTC fell 1.92% to Rs 1351.55. As per media reports, the government is planning to sell 15-20% of its stake in the company via offer for sale (OFS). The Department of Disinvestment has invited bids for the appointment of merchant bankers and selling brokers, as per a news report.
Info Edge (India) fell 1.34% to Rs 3269.50. A global brokerage firm has downgraded the stock to 'outperform' from 'buy' with a target price of Rs 3,580. The foreign brokerage reportedly highlighted that the 44% year-on-year (YoY) drop in billing in Q1 was higher than its estimates of a 38% decline. Cost control is likely to stay, though the ad spend could increase, it reportedly said.
Global Markets:
The Dow Jones Futures 30 were trading 185 points higher, indicating a strong start in US market today.
European stocks advanced while Asian stocks ended lower on Wednesday. Chinese inflation data for August released Wednesday showed the producer price index declined 2% in August from a year earlier, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics. The consumer price index in August rose 2.4% as compared with a year ago.
US stocks closed lower for a third straight session on Tuesday as heavyweight technology names extended their sell-off. Among U.S. technology names, electric-car maker Tesla plunged 21.1% to suffer its biggest daily percentage drop after it was excluded from a group of companies being added to the S&P 500.
Apple dropped 6.7% to lead tech lower. Facebook and Amazon were both down more than 4%. Microsoft fell 6.7%. Netflix closed 1.8% lower and Alphabet lost 3.6%. Zoom Video fell by 5.1%.
Powered by Capital Market - Live News
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content