Barometers hover near flat line; Metal stocks decline

The benchmark indices traded near the flat line with positive bias in the mid-morning trade. The Nifty traded near the 15,800 level. Metal stocks snapped five-day gaining streak. Trading is likely to remain volatile during the day due to expiry of weekly and monthly index options on the NSE.

At 11:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 65.57 points or 0.12% to 53,052.93. The Nifty 50 index rose 3.20 points or 0.02% to 15,802.30.

The broader market underperformed the key equity indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.59% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index lost 0.46%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,466 shares rose and 1,569 shares fell. A total of 132 shares were unchanged.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Metal index fell 1.39% to 4,689.40, snapping its five days rising streak. The index rose almost 6% in the five trading sessions.

Among the components of the Nifty Metal index, Vedanta (down 2.48%), National Aluminium Company (down 1.97%), Hindustan Copper (down 1.96%), Jindal Stainless (down 1.6%) and APL Apollo Tubes (down 1.54%) dropped.

Welspun Corp (down 1.5%), Jindal Steel & Power (down 1.2%), JSW Steel (down 1.13%), Hindalco Industries (down 0.86%) and NMDC (down 0.73%) also declined. However, Ratnamani Metals & Tubes (up 7.28%) gained.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Infosys fell 0.20%. The IT major has agreed with The House Fund III L.P., a venture capital (VC) fund based out of the US, for an investment of $10 million. The company said that the investment is expected to be completed by 30 June 2022. It is a minority holding not exceeding 20% of the fund size, it added. Infosys said that the Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and application continues to evolve rapidly and is key to the company`s strategy with increased usage across its clients for creation of intelligent products/services, security and business transformation. Infosys seeks to partners with such startups to complement its organic capabilities and jointly help its clients across the globe to transform their businesses.

G R Infraprojects rose 0.85%. The company on Wednesday announced that it has completed the project on the development of Purvanchal Expressway (Package‐VII) from Mojrapur (Azamgarh district) to Bijaura (Ghazipur district) in Uttar Pradesh on EPC basis. The completion certificate has been issued by the independent engineer on 28 June 2022 and has declared the project fit for entry into commercial operation with effe from 7 March 2022. The contract price of the project stood at Rs 1,437.47 crore.

J.B. Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals was up 0.42%. The pharma company said that its board has approved the acquisition of portfolio of brands, for use and exploitation within India, from Dr Reddy`s Laboratories. JB Pharma has entered into an agreement with Dr. Reddy`s Laboratories to acquire four of its brands "Z&D", "Pedicloryl", "Pecef" and "Ezinapi" for the India market. All four brands are focused on the paediatric segment in the country with a total covered market size of Rs 1800 crore as per IQVIA data. The combined sales of these brands as per internal estimates were approximately Rs 33 crore for FY 2021-22.

Global markets:

Most of the Asian stocks were trading lower on Thursday as investors weighed signs of gradual improvement in China`s economy and comments from central bank chiefs on tackling persistent price pressures.

In economic news, China`s official manufacturing Purchasing Managers` Index for June was at 50.2.

Stock indexes on Wall Street ended mostly lower in the overnight session after another choppy day of trading.

On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester said she will advocate for a 75 basis point hike to interest rates at the central bank`s July meeting if economic conditions remain the same by then.

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