Investors lightened their portfolios and decided to sit on cash on Friday as they await Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's third Union Budget presentation due on Monday, February 1. In a sea-saw trade today, stock specific moves swayed markets even as overall mood remained subdued.
Sell-off intensified at the bourses after the Economic Survey pegged India's GDP growth in FY21 at -7.7 per cent but saw real GDP growth at 11% in FY22. While the numbers were largely in-line with Street estimates, the Survey's emphasis on maintaining fiscal responsibility in a pandemic-hit year worried investors.
At the index level, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex swung 1,260 points in the intra-day trade and hit an intra-day high and low of 47,424 and 46,160. The index eventually settled 588 points, or 1.26 per cent, lower at 46,286 levels.
On the NSE, the Nifty50 index closed at 13,635 levels, down 183 points or 1.32 per cent. The index hit an intra-day low of 13,597.
Both the benchmarks ahave erased around 6 per cent during the week.
The broader market, however, remained relatively stable with the S&P BSE MidCap and S&P BSE SmallCap index down 0.69 per cent and 0.25 per cent, respectively at close.
On the sectoral front, financial and realty stocks held their ground with the Nifty PSU Bank and Realty indices settling 1.7 per cent and 0.7 per cent higher, respectively. On the downside, Nifty Auto index tumbled around 3 per cent, while Nifty Pharma and Metal indices declined around 2 per cent each.
Among individual stocks, Dr Reddy's Labs ended with a 5.5 per cent cut, and was the top loser on the Sensex, after its consolidated net profit came in at Rs 19.8 crore for the quarter ended December, sharply lower than analysts' estimate of Rs 726 crore.
That apart, Maruti Suzuki, which also settled 5% down today, was the second most-beaten stock. The stock extended its decline into sixth session, falling over 10 per cent during this period, after the firm's Q3 Ebitda margin contracted by 70 basis points to 9.5 per cent.
On the flipside, shares of Shriram Transport Finance soared 18 per cent to Rs 1,313 on the BSE in the intra-day trade today, amid heavy volumes, as the firm posted an improvement in asset quality for the quarter ended December 2020 (Q3FY21). It ended over 16 per cent higher.
Owing to a weak market sentiment, shares of Indian Railway Finance Corporation made a weak debut at the bourses, by listing at Rs 25, a 4 per cent discount from its issue price of Rs 26 per share on the BSE. The stock ended 4.6% lower against the issue price at Rs 24.8 apiece.
Meanwhile, in a post-market development, IndusInd Bank reported a net profit of Rs 830.4 crore for the December quarter of FY21, which was mildly lower than Bloomberg's estimate of Rs 833 crore profit. NII came in at Rs 3,406 crore. Shares of the lender ended 5 per cent higher.
Moreover, Tata Motors posted a net profit of Rs 2,941 crore in Q3FY21, higher than Bloomberg estimate of Rs 1,173 crore profit.
Global markets
European stocks and US stock futures fell on Friday as a Wall Street battle between hedge funds and retail investors and a row in Europe over COVID-19 vaccine supply cooled risk appetite.
S&P 500 futures fell 1.5 per cent and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1.8 per cent. Meanwhile, Britain's FTSE 100 index fell 1.7 per cent and was set to record its worst week since October. European stocks, on the other hand, fell 1.5 per cent.
In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.1% while Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.9%.
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