Benchmarks trade with small cuts; Europren shares advance

The key equity indices traded with minor losses in the afternoon trade. The Nifty traded near the 19,750 mark. Healthcare, pharma and FMCG shares advanced while banking, oil & gas and financial services stocks corrected.

At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 100.11 points or 0.15% to 65,882.37. The Nifty 50 index lost 11.45 points or 0.06% to 19,753.75.

The broader market outperformed the headline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 0.16% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.37%. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index and S&P BSE Small-Cap index hit record high of 33,423.33 and 39,690.72 in intraday today.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 2,032 shares rose and 1,628 shares fell. A total of 152 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) unveiled new regulations aimed at tightening the oversight of unsecured personal loans within the banking and non-banking financial sectors. The central bank`s decision entails a significant increase in the risk weights for consumer credit exposure of commercial banks, encompassing both existing and new personal loans, by 25% to 125%.

However, these changes are not applicable to housing loans, education loans, vehicle loans, and loans secured by gold and gold jewelry.

Additionally, the RBI has also raised the risk weights on credit card receivables by 25% to 150% for scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) and to 125% for NBFCs. The new norms, which take immediate effect, are applicable for new as well as outstanding loans.

These adjustments are in line with previous remarks from RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, who highlighted the swift expansion of specific consumer credit segments. Governor Das emphasized the importance of bolstering internal surveillance mechanisms within banks and NBFCs, addressing risk accumulation, and implementing appropriate safeguards to ensure financial stability.

Gainers & Losers:

SBI Life Insurance Company (up 3.04%), Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (up 2.63%), HDFC Life Insurance Company (up 2.50%), Asian Paints (up 2.29%) and Hero MotoCorp (up 2.09%) were major Nifty gainers.

State Bank of India (down 1.51%), Axis Bank (down 0.81%), ONGC (down 0.71%), Bajaj Finace (down 0.64%) and BPCL (down 0.61%) were major Nifty losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

JSW Steel shed 0.01%. The company upon considering demand and supply scenario of Iron Ore in India, has withdrawn its application for the Final Mine Closure Plan submitted on 1st September 2023 before the Indian Bureau of Mines for the purpose of surrender of Jajang Iron Ore Block located in the district of Keonjhar, Odisha.

Kotak Mahindra Bank declined 0.17%. The private lender announced that its board has approved the appointment of Ashok Vaswani as a director and managing director & chief executive officer (CEO) of the bank for a period of three years with effect from 1 January 2024.

JSW Infrastructure rallied 3.30% after the company has received Letter of Award from Karnataka Maritime Board, Government of Karnataka for development of All- weather, deep water, greenfield port at Keni in Karnataka on Public Private Partnership basis.

Brigade Enterprises added 2.16%. The Brigade Group has signed a joint development agreement (JDA) with Krishna Priya Estates and Micro Labs to develop around 2 million square feet of residential housing in Bengaluru with a Gross Development Value (GDV) of Rs 2,100 crore. 

Global Markets:

Shares in Europe edged higher while its Asian peers traded mixed on Friday as a batch of softer U.S. economic data took some of the steam out of Wall Street, but also boosted bonds in a big way while slugging oil prices in a boon for the inflation outlook. Both Brent and U.S. crude slid almost 5% on Thursday to four-month lows in a move that was blamed on economic and supply concerns.

In US, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq managed to eke out tiny gains on Thursday while the Dow Industrial Average ended slightly lower with pressure from tech and retail bellwethers Cisco and Walmart after disappointing forecasts. Shares of Cisco Systems tumbled as the communications and networking technology company cut its full-year revenue and profit forecasts on slowing demand for its networking equipment.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to resume high-level military communication, according to both countries. The two leaders met in person for the first time in a year Wednesday in San Francisco on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference. �We�re back to direct, open, clear communications,� Biden said at a press conference after the talks. 

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