The benchmark indices ended with small cuts on Thursday, dragged by banks stocks. Trading was volatile on account of weekly index expiry on the NSE. The Nifty managed to close above 17,300 level after hitting the day's low of 17,235.85 in morning trade.
As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell 104.67 points or 0.18% at 57,892.01. The Nifty 50 index slipped 17.60 points or 0.1% at 17,304.60.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.22% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index lost 0.67%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,313 shares rose and 2,056 shares fell. A total of 104 shares were unchanged.
Economy:
The government has approved the continuation of the Capacity Development (CD) Scheme till 31st of March, 2026. Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in a statement said that the outlay approved for the continuation of the Scheme during 15th Finance Commission cycle is Rs 3,179 crore.
The Capacity Development Scheme is an Ongoing Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry with an overall objective to augment infrastructural, technical as well as manpower resources for enabling availability of credible and timely official statistics.
The Scheme encompasses all statistical and data management activities of the Ministry and plays a crucial role in generation and maintenance of official statistical system of the country.
The large-scale sample surveys undertaken by the Ministry cover important aspects of the economy and provide data inputs for policy framing of the Government.
Buzzing Segment:
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released the telecom subscription data for December 2021 on 17 February 2022. The total wireless subscribers decreased from 116.75 crore at the end of November 2021 to 115.46 crore at the end of December 2021, thereby registering a monthly decline rate of 1.10%.
Reliance Industries (RIL) (up 1.26%) controls Reliance Jio. Reliance Jio lost 1.29 crore subscribers in the month of December 2021 and its total subscriber based stood at 41.57 crore.
Bharti Airtel (down 0.72%) added 4.75 lakh subscribers in the month of December 2021 and its total subscriber based stood at 35.57 crore.
Vodafone Idea (up 0.85%) lost 16.14 lakh subscribers in the month of December 2021 and its total subscriber based stood at 26.55 crore.
As on 31 December 2021, the private access service providers held 89.81% market share of the wireless subscribers whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two PSU access service providers, had a market share of only 10.19%.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Tata Motors rose 0.11%. Jaguar Land Rover announced formation of a multi-year strategic partnership with NVIDIA to jointly develop and deliver next-generation automated driving systems plus AI-enabled services. Starting in 2025, all new Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles will be built on the NVIDIA DRIVE software-defined platformdelivering a wide spectrum of active safety, automated driving and parking systems as well as driver assistance systems. Inside the vehicle, the system will deliver AI features, including driver and occupant monitoring as well as advanced visualisation of the vehicle's environment.
Jubilant Ingrevia advanced 2.07%. The company announced the commissioning of its new Diketene derivatives facility at its manufacturing site in North India at Gajraula, Uttar Pradesh. Jubilant Ingrevia for many years has niche expertise in using Ketene chemistry technology. Using the Ketene chemistry capability, the company has developed a range of Diketene derivatives.
Wipro fell 0.04%. The IT major has been awarded a five-year, strategic engagement to drive transformation for ABB's Information Systems digital workplace services. The agreement, worth over $150 million, will help ABB's Information Systems deliver enhanced, consumer-grade digital experiences for its 105,000 employees in over 100 countries. This engagement, led centrally from Switzerland by ABB and Wipro, will deliver increased automation and enhanced user experience through personalised services underpinned by real-time analyticsall wrapped with Wipro's superior endpoint security services. Wipro will also provide ABB with managed services support leveraging Wipro's LiVE Workspace solution.
Hikal dropped 4.71%. The company received a notice from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) for closure of the firm's manufacturing unit located at MIDC Taloja, Dist. Raigad. The closure notice has been issued in view of certain alleged non-compliances of the conditional consent to operate and the recent Surat issue. The Taloja unit had contributed approx. Rs 260 crore amounting to around 15% of the turnover of the company for financial year 2020-21. The company is taking appropriate legal measures as advised by counsels before the Pollution Board as well as Courts to remedy the situation and seek reliefs against the closure notice.
Nestle India shed 0.79%. The FMCG major's net profit fell 20% to Rs 386.66 crore on 8.45% increase in net sales to Rs 3,706.20 crore in Q4 December 2021 over Q4 December 2020. The company's profit before exceptional items and tax rose 10.97% to Rs 743.68 crore in Q4 December 2021 over Q4 December 2020. The company reported an exceptional expense of Rs 236.50 crore in Q4 December 2021. Total sales and domestic sales for the quarter increased by 8.4% and 9.2% respectively. Domestic sales growth is broad based and largely driven by volume & mix. Export sales were lower by 6.6% largely due to change in product mix. The board has recommended a final dividend for 2021 of Rs 65 per equity share.
Global Markets:
The Dow Jones index futures were down 221 points, indicating a negative opening in the US stocks today.
Most European stocks declined while Asian stocks ended mixed on Thursday as investors continued to monitor geopolitical tensions in eastern Europe, while digesting a slew of corporate earnings reports.
In Asia, Japan's January exports came in far below expectations, with official data released on Thursday showing a 9.6% year-on-year rise for that month.
NATO on Wednesday accused Russia of increasing the number of troops it has gathered at the Ukrainian border, a day after Moscow claimed it had begun withdrawing some of its military units.
According to the media reports, a senior Biden administration official said on Wednesday the United States does not believe Russia's claim to be withdrawing troops from the Ukraine border and suspects Moscow has increased its presence by as many as 7,000 troops.
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