Market Wrap, Oct 22: Sensex loses 335 pts, Nifty slips below 11,600

Headlines of the day:

>> Infosys sees biggest 1-day fall in over 6 yrs; stock tumbles over 16% as whistleblowers accuse of unethical practices; 

>> Sensex loses 335 pts, Nifty slips below 11,600; 

>> MCX the first bourse to offer one gram gold futures with delivery option; &

>> Axis Bank reports loss in Q2, hurt by one-time tax charge

The news in detail:

Panic selling in IT services major Infosys along with profit-booking in recent outperformers sent the benchmark indices nearly a per cent lower on Tuesday. Shares of Infosys came under heavy pressure after the revelation that a group describing itself as ‘whistle-blower staffers’ had accused the management of hiding the true financial picture. The stock recorded its sharpest intra-day fall in more than six years. Earlier on April 12, 2013 it fell 22 per cent in the intra-day trade. The stock contributed 451 points to the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex's fall.

The S&P BSE Sensex lost 335 points or 0.85 per cent to settle at 38,964, with ICICI Bank (up over 3 per cent) being the top gainer and Infosys (down over 16 per cent) the biggest loser. Out of 30 components, 15 ended in the red and rest 15 in the green. During the day, the index hit a high and low of 39,426 and 38,925, respectively. While Infosys, Bajaj Finance, and Bharti Airtel contributed the most to the index's fall, counters such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and HDFC supported the bulls. 

In the broader market, both the mid and small-caps indices pared morning gains; however, they fared better than the headline indices. The S&P BSE MidCap index ended at 14,407, down 13 points or 0.09 per cent. The S&P BSE SmallCap index gained around 64 points or half a per cent to settle at 13,190 levels.

On the NSE, the broader Nifty50 index settled at 11,590, down 72 points or 0.62 per cent. 

Volatility index India VIX added around 5 per cent to 16.67 levels. 

On the sectoral front, IT stocks bled the most, followed by media, metal, and auto counters. Pharma stocks gained the most with the Nifty Pharma index rising around 2 per cent to 7,758 levels. Nifty Financial Services index advanced over 1 per cent to 13,352 levels.

India’s weightage in the MSCI EM index is set to rise thanks to the possibility of addition of as much as three domestic stocks in the index. In a note on Tuesday, Morgan Stanley said SBI Life Insurance, ICICI Prudential Life and Siemens India are key inclusion candidates in the upcoming review. Also, the weightage of ICICI Bank is set to increase as the legroom for foreign portfolio investor (FPI) investment in the stock has gone up.

All these changes get implemented, India’s weight in MSCI EM could rise by 37 basis points (bps) from the current level of 8.89 per cent, says Morgan Stanley. Also, passive inflows of more than $1.5 billion could come into India on account of these changes. MSCI EM is tracked by funds with assets of over $400 billion. 

The buzzing stocks of the day:

Shares of Granules India surged 18 per cent to Rs 119.70 on the BSE on Tuesday after the company's net profit jumped 59 per cent year on year (YoY) to Rs 96 crore in September quarter (Q2FY20) on the back of strong operational performance. At close, the stock settled at Rs 114, up over 12 per cent. 

Shares of DLF traded higher for the seventh straight day on the BSE on the back of heavy volumes. The stock ended at Rs 178 apiece, up 5.60 per cent. 

Shares of HDFC Asset Management Company (AMC), HDFC Life Insurance, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company and SBI Life Insurance Company were among 22 stocks from the S&P BSE 500 index hitting their respective all-time highs on the BSE on Tuesday.