The key equity barometers ended with decent gains after a volatile session on Wednesday. Last hour buying helped the benchmark indices pare all losses and in the green. The Nifty closed tad above the 17,750 level after hitting the day's low at 17,602.25 in early trade. Auto, oil & gas and bank stocks advanced while healthcare, consumer durables and realty stocks declined.
As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex,rose 123.63 points or 0.21% to 60,348.09. The Nifty 50 index added 42.95 points or 0.24% to 17,754.40.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.61% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.28%.
The market breadth was almost even. On the BSE, 1,957 shares rose and 1,515 shares fell. A total of 124 shares were unchanged.
Investor sentiment nosedived after Fed Chair Jerome Powell's stated that the central bank will likely need to raise interest rates for a longer period. He said that the Fed is all set to take larger rate hikes following strong economic data and will likely move in larger steps if future economic data indicates tougher measures to control inflation. This would mark a reversal of the central bank's actions over the last two meetings when it trimmed the size of its rate hikes from 75 basis points to 25 basis points.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Auto index rose 0.83% to 13,016.60. The index has advanced 2.18% in three sessions.
Bosch (up 3.43%), Bajaj Auto (up 2.28%), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 1.62%), Eicher Motors (up 1.26%) and Tube Investments of India (up 1.16%) were the top gainers.
Among the other gainers were TVS Motor Company (up 1.05%), Bharat Forge (up 0.92%), Maruti Suzuki India (up 0.72%), Samvardhana Motherson International (up 0.48%) and MRF (up 0.13%).
On the other hand, Sona BLW Precision Forgings (down 1.2%), Balkrishna Industries (down 0.57%) and Tata Motors (down 0.12%) moved lower.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Shares of seven Adani Group edged higher in trade after the Adani Group said its promoters have prepaid share backed financing of Rs 7,374 crore ahead of its latest maturity in April 2025.
A total of 23.3 crore shares will be released as part of the latest prepayment, the conglomerate said on Tuesday (7 March 2023). Along with the repayments done earlier in the month of February, Adani has prepaid $2,016 million of share backed financing, which is consistent with promoters' commitment to prepay all share backed financing before 31 March 2023.
Adani Enterprises (up 2.83%) and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (up 3.19%) advanced. Concurrently, Adani Wilmar, Adani Total Gas, Adani Green Energy, Adani Transmission and Adani Power were up 5% each.
Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) jumped 5.86% while Larsen & Toubro (L&T) added 1.31%. The Union Ministry of Defence on Tuesday signed two separate contracts with state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Larsen & Toubro for 70 Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40) basic trainer aircraft and three cadet training ships, respectively, at a cumulative cost of Rs 9,900 crore.
GAIL (India) rose 1.79%. The company said its board will consider interim dividend on Monday, 13 March 2023.
Meanwhile, in a separate announcement GAIL (India) said "The Force Majeure claimed by SEFE Marketing & Trading Singapore Pte Ltd. (SMTS and erstwhile Gazprom Marketing and Trading Singapore Pte Ltd.) is still continuing. Pending restoration of LNG supplies from SMTS, production at our Pata Petrochemical plant has been ramped up now to full capacity through alternative supplies."
In 2012, GAIL had agreed to a 20-year deal with Russia's Gazprom for annual purchases of an average 2.5 million tonnes of LNG. Supplies under the contract began in 2018. However, Gazprom halted supplies of natural gas to GAIL (India) since June 2022 due to soaring global gas prices.
Dishman Carbogen Amcis jumped 5.39%. The company said that its board will consider fund raising through issuance of non-convertible debentures (NCDs) on Friday, 10 March 2023.
Indraprastha Gas (IGL) rose 0.86%. The company entered into joint venture agreement (JV) with Genesis Gas Solutions (Genesis) to set up smart meter manufacturing plant with capital expenditure of Rs 110 crore.
Natco Pharma rose 0.40%. The pharma company announced that its board has approved a share buyback of upto Rs 210 crore at a price not exceeding Rs 700 per equity share through open market route.
Ajanta Pharma surged 5.17%. The drug maker's board will consider a share buyback on 10 March 2023.
Deccan Gold Mines was locked in 5% upper circuit. The company has emerged as the highest bidder in e-auction for Bhalukona - Jamnidih Nickel, Chromium and Associated PGE Block in Chhattisgarh.
Artson Engineering gained 2.27%. The company has received purchase order worth Rs 14.49 crore from Tata Projects. The order is for supplying pressure vessels and its mandatory, erection & commissioning spares.
Zydus Lifesciences slipped 0.78%. The drug maker has received final approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for Lenalidomide capsules, 2.5 mg and 20 mg (USRLD: Revlimid capsules). The drug is used to treat various types of cancers.
Global markets:
Shares in Europe and Asia mostly edged lower on Wednesday, as investors react to the latest comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve's Chairman Jerome Powell indicating interest rates may need to go higher for longer.
Japan's seasonally adjusted current account balance rose to 216.3 billion yen ($1.57 billion) in January, government data showed on Wednesday. The surplus in balance saw a sharp drop from December's balance of 1.18 trillion yen and November's balance of 1.92 trillion yen.
China on Tuesday saw exports fall by 6.8% in February in U.S. dollar terms and imports also declined 10.2%.
Overnight in the US, major stock indexes declined following Fed Chair Powell cautioning lawmakers that the central bank's terminal rate will likely be higher than previously anticipated due to stubbornly high economic data in recent weeks. Powell was on Capitol Hill Tuesday for the first part of his two-day semiannual monetary policy testimony before Congress.
The Dow Jones closed nearly 575 points lower and turned negative for 2023. The S&P 500 slid 1.53% to close below the key 4,000 threshold, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.25%. The sharp decline for stocks was accompanied by a spike in bond yields, with the rate on the 2-year Treasury surpassing 5% and touching the highest level since 2007.
Crude oil prices tumbled on fears of rate hike, weak Chinese data and strengthening dollar. Brent crude for May 2023 settlement lost 38 cents or 0.46% to $82.91 a barrel.
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