Benchmarks hover near day's low; FMCG shares correct on profit booking

Key benchmark indices were trading near the day's low in early afternoon trade. The Nifty hovered around the 8300 mark. At 12:23 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, tanked 996.34 points or 3.38% at 28,472.15. The Nifty 50 index was down 270 points or 3.14% at 8,327.80.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was down 1.86% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.68%.

The market breadth was almost even. On the BSE, 955 shares rose and 986 shares fell. A total of 139 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, the breadth was weak with 4 stocks advancing and 46 stocks declining.

 

Rising coronavirus numbers across the globe exerted downside pressure on equities. Globally, there have been over 859,700 confirmed cases of COVID-19. At least 42,340 people have died so far while 178,333 have recovered. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in India stands at 1,590.

Derivatives:

Weekly index options will expire today as domestic market will remain shut on Thursday (2 April 2020) on account of Ram Navami.

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, slipped 4.79% to 61.3200. The Nifty April 2020 futures were trading at 8,290.75, a discount of 6.15 points compared with the spot at 8,296.90.

On the options front, the Nifty option chain for 30 April 2020 expiry showed maximum call open interest (OI) of 15.19 lakh contracts at the 9,000 strike price. Maximum put OI of 19.71 lakh contracts was seen at 8,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty FMCG index declined 2.75% to 26,569.05, snapping its six days winning streak. The index surged 17.84% in the past six trading sessions.

Britannia Inds (down 4.67%), Jubilant Foodworks (down 3.98%), Hindustan Unilever (down 3.82%), Tata Consumer Products (down 3.71%), Nestle India (down 3.6%), United Breweries (down 3.12%), ITC (down 2.74%), United Spirits (down 2.67%), Godrej Industries (down 2.03%), Colgate Palmolive (down 1.63%), Dabur (down 1.49%), Procter & Gamble Hygiene Healthcare (down 0.91%) and Marico (down 0.56%) were top losers in FMCG segment.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Ashok Leyland declined 4.07% to Rs 41.30 after the company's total sales tumbled 90% to 2,179 units in March 2020 from 21,535 units in March 2019.

Eicher Motors fell 1.38% to Rs 12906 after unlisted subsidiary VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV) reported 82.7% decline in total sales to 1,499 units in March 2020 from 8,676 units in March 2019.

Shares of Safari Industries were down 2.44% at Rs 391.50. CRISIL had revised its rating outlook on the long-term bank facilities of the company to 'Stable' from 'Positive' while reaffirming the rating at 'CRISIL A-.

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