Informist, Thursday, Jan 20, 2022
By Joe Milton
MUMBAI – Domestic equity indices fell for the third session today as elevated yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note kept investors away from riskier assets.
The benchmark US bond yield hovered above 1.83% in anticipation of interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve to control inflation.
Domestically, so far, higher commodity prices have hit Oct-Dec margins of companies, which has also weighed on investor sentiment.
Today, shares of Asian Paints and tyre companies were under pressure on concerns over weak operational performance due to high raw material cost.
Hindustan Unilever declared its December quarter earnings after market hours and the company said rural demand had taken a hit due to inflation.
The management of HUL expects inflation to firm up in the current quarter, and plans to hike prices to tackle high input cost. The stock closed 2.1% lower at 2,261.80 rupees.
Investors continued to book profits in information technology stocks for the fourth consecutive session today, with the Nifty IT index falling 5.6% over the period.
Frontline technology majors such as Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, and HCL Technologies ended 2-3% lower, which weighed on the benchmark indices.
The Nifty 50 hit an intraday low of 17648.45 points, but managed to partially recover in the last hour of trading and close at 17757 points, down 1%. The BSE Sensex ended at 59464.62 points, down 1.1%, after touching the day's low of 59068.31 points.
"Equities are currently facing global headwinds and there is no relief from the domestic front as well," said Ajit Mishra, vice president-research, Religare Broking. "However, we feel it’s a healthy correction so far and expect Nifty to hold above 17600 points," he added.
There was buying interest at lower levels in select financial services stocks, which helped the benchmark indices close off the day's lows. Shares of ICICI Bank ended 0.2% higher after falling 1.6% intraday.
However, shares of HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank ended down 0.6% each after falling over 1% during the day.
Analysts broadly recommend using the current weakness in the market to accumulate shares of fundamentally strong companies.
There was renewed buying interest in shares of metal companies, and the Nifty Metal index was the sole gainer among sectoral indices. Shares of Hindustan Copper, Welspun Corp, and Jindal Steel & Power ended 2-4% higher.
Further, a slew of stocks reacted to Oct-Dec earnings. Shares of Bajaj Finserv, Orient Electric, PCBL fell amid weak December quarter numbers.
In the broader market the sell-off was less intense with all the mid-cap and small-cap indices in the NSE closing 0.1-0.5% lower.
* Among Nifty 50 stocks, 15 rose, 35 fell
* Among Sensex stocks, 7 rose and 23 fell
* On the NSE, 1,045 stocks rose, 1,005 fell and 35 were unchanged
* On the BSE, 1,745 stocks rose, 1,663 fell and 76 were unchanged
* Nifty Pharma: Down 1.66%; Nifty Auto: Down 0.84%; Nifty Bank: Down 0.50%
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BSE National Stock Exchange
Sensex: 59464.62, down 634.20 pts (1.06%) Nifty 50: 17757, down 181.40 pts (1.01%)
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S&P BSE Sensitive Index Nifty 50
Lifetime High: 62245.43 (Oct 19) : Lifetime High: 18604.45 (Oct 19)
Record Close High: 61765.59 (Oct 18) : Record Close High: 18477.05 (Oct 18)
2022 1st day close: 59183.22 (Jan 3) : 2022 1st day close: 17625.70 (Jan 3)
2022 Closing High: 61308.91 (Jan 17) : 2022 Closing High: 18308.10 (Jan 17)
2022 Closing Low: 59183.22 (Jan 3) : 2022 Closing Low: 17625.70 (Jan 3)
2022 High (intraday): 61385.48 (Jan 17) : 2022 High (intraday): 18321.55 (Jan 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)
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End
Edited by Aditya Sakorkar
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