Benchmarks pare losses; bank stocks edge lower

The domestic equity barometers came off the day`s low in morning trade. The Nifty was trading above the 17,600 mark. Bank stocks, however, declined for the seventh consecutive session.

At 10:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 504.94 points or 0.85% to 58,959.68. The Nifty 50 index lost 149.60 points or 0.84% to 17,607.40.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index slipped 0.81% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 0.41%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1274 shares rose and 1845 shares fell. A total of 122 shares were unchanged.

Results Today:

Reliance Industries (down 0.14%), JSW Steel (down 0.75%), HDFC Life Insurance Company (down 1.34%), SBI Life Insurance Company (down 1.01%), Bandhan Bank (down 0.07%), Gland Pharma (down 0.90%), Vodafone Idea (up 1.24%), Hindustan Zinc (down 0.62%), IDBI Bank (down 0.69%), L&T Finance Holdings (down 1.79%) and Polycab India (down 0.41%) will be in focus in today as they companies declare their quarterly earnings today.

Further, Tanla Platforms (up 0.46%), CSB Bank, PVR (up 0.86%), Inox Leisure (up 0.75%), Kajaria Ceramics (down 3.30%), Jyothy Labs (up 1.85%), Heritage Foods (down 1.76%), Supreme Petrochem (down 0.84%), Supriya Lifescience (up 0.82%) and Wendt (India) (up 1.11%) are some of the companies that are slated to announce their third quarter results today.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Bank index slipped 1.03% to 37,460.55, extending losses for seventh day. The index has declined 3.27% in seven sessions.

Federal Bank (down 1.94%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 1.93%), Axis Bank (down 1.65%), Punjab National Bank (down 1.50%), SBI (down 1.18%), RBL Bank (down 1.02%), ICICI Bank (down 1.01%), IndusInd Bank (down 1%) and HDFC Bank (down 0.60%) declined.

Stocks in Spotlight:

VST Industries rose 0.75% to Rs 3,244. The company reported a 12.2% rise in net profit to Rs 82.72 crore on a 14.5% increase in net sales to Rs 328.24 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q3 FY21.

Biocon gained 1.91% to Rs 371.15. The company`s consolidated net profit jumped 17.68% to Rs 219.60 crore on a 17.05% surge in revenue from operations to Rs 2,174.20 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q3 FY21.

Persistent Systems added 2.49% to Rs 4,352.55. On a consolidated basis, the IT company`s net profit rose 9.1% to Rs 176.39 crore on 10.4% increase in revenue from operations to Rs 1491.71 crore in Q3 December 2021 over Q2 September 2021.

Data Patterns (India) was up 0.14% to Rs 784.45. The company announced that it has received a development order of Rs 27 crore from Defence Research and Development Organisation for wide band RF front end units for electronic warfare receivers.

COVID-19 Update:

In last 24 hours, India registered 3,47,254 new COVID-19 infections in a day, according to the Union Health Ministry data on Friday. The country reported 703 new deaths taking the death toll to 4,88,396. The country recorded 2,51,777 recoveries, taking the total number of recoveries to 3,60,58,806. The active cases comprise 5.23% of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 93.50%, the ministry said.

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