Informist, Tuesday, Aug 8, 2023

By Anjana Therese Antony

MUMBAI – Ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee decision on Thursday, the Indian equity market ended its choppy session marginally lower. While losses in shares of metal companies pulled the market down, those of financial services companies cushioned benchmark indices from a steep fall. Some analysts said that investors avoided placing aggressive bets ahead of the policy meet outcome, adding that the current consolidation in the market is likely to continue till the central bank's policy announcement.

"The RBI’s monetary policy decision has the potential to induce volatility this week and traders should be ready for a directional move on either side," said Riches Vanara, a technical and derivatives analyst at StoxBox, in a post-market note.

The central bank is widely expected to keep key interest rates unchanged at 6.50% and could maintain its stance of 'withdrawal of accomodation'.

Today, the Nifty 50 ended 0.1% lower at 19570.85 points and Sensex closed 0.2% down at 65846.50 points. The immediate support for the Nifty 50 is seen at 19500-19490 points and resistance at 19700 points for Wednesday. Analysts said that the market is likely to be in consolidation till the policy outcome. 

On the sectoral front, losses in metal stocks dragged the Nifty 50 index nearly 0.1% lower. Nifty Metal was the worst hit sectoral index which ended 1.2% lower, with Adani Enterprises and Hindalco Industries being the worst hit constituents. Ten out of 15 index constituents closed in the red.

Metal producer Hindalco Industries extended intraday losses and closed 2% lower after the company reported an on-year fall in its consolidated net profit as well as revenue for the June quarter. However, the bottomline figure beat the Street's estimates. The Mumbai-based company's consolidated net profit for Apr-Jun rose 2% from a quarter ago to 24.5 bln rupees, higher than estimates of 18.5 bln rupees. 

Consolidated net sales for the June quarter declined 5% sequentially to 529.9 bln rupees, against the average of expectation of a 10% crash. 

Bucking the negative trend in the market, financial services stocks contributed to 0.1% gains in Nifty 50. Nifty PSU Bank was the top gainer among sectoral indices and closed 3.4% higher at 4540.80 points. 

Pharmaceutical and healthcare stocks, which provided support to the market in the first few hours of trade, lost some ground after their respective indices hit all-time highs today. Nifty Pharma hit its lifetime high of 15640.25 points and Nifty Healthcare reached its historical high of 9848.35 points. However, the healthcare index closed lower after hitting the all-time high. 

Meanwhile, the broader market outperformed benchmark indices, with Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap indices closing 0.1-0.3% higher.

A number of stock-specific reactions were observed, with the Apr-Jun earnings season going on. Nifty 50 company Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone stock came off lows and ended nearly 1% lower after the company posted an 83% on-year growth in its consolidated net profit to 21.15 bln rupees, aided by growth in cargo volumes and a minor forex gain. Before the earnings were announced, the stock was down 1.9%. 

Shares of Nifty 500 constituent Hikal jumped 6% after the company reported a consolidated net profit compared with loss in the year-ago period. The company's bottomline was at 69.2 mln rupees against a loss of 88.6 mln rupees in the previous year. 

On other hand, among the top gainers in Nifty 50 was Hero MotoCorp, which closed 3.8% higher after the company reported 25,597 bookings for Harley-Davidson X440 model since it opened bookings on Jul 4. 

Another Nifty 50 constituent SBI Life Insurance Co extended gains for the third consecutive session to hit its all-time high of 1,358.75 rupees today and ended the session 3.6% higher. 

Cipla also rose for the third straight session and hit a lifetime high of 1,269.00 rupees after media reports on Friday said that private equity fund Blackstone will acquire the entire 33.47% promoter stake in the company. 

Among other stocks, shares of Yatharth Hospital & Trauma Care Services closed higher for the second straight session after debuting on NSE on Monday.

* Of the Nifty 50 stocks, 19 rose, and 31 fell

* Of the Sensex stocks, 10 rose, 19 fell, and 1 was unchanged

* On the BSE, 1,852 stocks rose, 1,757 fell, and 146 were unchanged

* Nifty Metal: Down 1.2%; Nifty Infrastructure: Down 0.4%; Nifty PSU Bank: Up 3.4%

BSE                                                NSE
Sensex: 65846.50, down 106.98 pts or 0.16%         Nifty 50: 19570.85, down 26.45 pts or 0.13%

S&P BSE Sensitive Index                            Nifty 50
Lifetime High: 67619.17 (Jul 20, 2023)          :  Lifetime High: 19991.85 (Jul 20, 2023)
Record Close High: 67571.90 (Jul 20, 2023)      :  Record Close High: 19979.15 (Jul 20, 2023)

2023 1st day close: 61167.79 (Jan 2)            :  2023 1st day close: 18197.45 (Jan 2)
2023 Closing High: 67571.90 (Jul 20)            :  2023 Closing High: 19979.15 (Jul 20)

2023 Closing Low: 59288.35 (Feb 27)             :  2023 Closing Low: 17311.80 (Oct 17)

2023 High (intraday): 66064.21 (Jul 13)         :  2023 High (intraday): 19567.00 (Jul 13)

2023 Low (intraday): 58699.20 (Jan 30)          :  2023 Low (intraday): 17098.55 (Jan 17)

2022 1st day close: 59183.22 (Jan 3)            :  2022 1st day close: 17625.70 (Jan 3)
2022 Closing High: 63284.19 (Dec 1)             :  2022 Closing High: 18812.50 (Dec 1) 
2022 Closing Low: 51360.42 (Jun 17)             :  2022 Closing Low: 15293.50 (Jun 17)
2022 High (intraday): 63583.07 (Dec 1)          :  2022 High (intraday): 18887.60 (Dec 1)

2022 Low (intraday): 50921.22 (Jun 17)          :  2022 Low (intraday): 15183.40 (Jun 17)
2021 Closing High: 61305.95 (Oct 14)            :  2021 Closing High: 18338.55 (Oct 14) 
2021 Closing Low: 46285.77 (Jan 29)             :  2021 Closing Low: 13634.60 (Jan 29)
2021 High (intraday): 61353.25 (Oct 14)         :  2021 High (intraday): 18350.75 (Oct 14)
2021 Low (intraday): 46160.46 (Jan 29)          :  2021 Low (intraday): 13596.75 (Jan 29)-

2020 Closing High: 47751.33 (Dec 31)            :  2020 Closing High: 13981.95 (Dec 30)
2020 Closing Low: 25981.24 (Mar 23)             :  2020 Closing Low: 7610.25 (Mar 23)
2020 High (intraday): 47896.97 (Dec 31)         :  2020 High (intraday): 14024.85 (Dec 31)
2020 Low (intraday): 25638.90 (Mar 24)          :  2020 Low (intraday): 7511.10 (Mar 24)
2019 High (intraday): 41809.96 (Dec 20)         :  2019 High (intraday): 12293.90 (Dec 20)
2019 Low (intraday): 35287.16 (Feb 19)          :  2019 Low (intraday): 10583.65 (Jan 29)
2018 High (intraday): 38938.91(Aug 28))         :  2018 High(intraday): 11760.20 (Aug 28)
2018 Low (intraday): 32483.8 (Mar 23)           :  2018 Low (intraday): 9951.9 (Mar 23)
2017 High (intraday): 34005.37 (Dec 26)         :  2017 High(intraday): 10515.10 (Dec 26)

End

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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