Market extends modest losses; breadth negative

The benchmark indices continued to incur minor losses during afternoon trade, dragged by auto, pharma and oil & gas stocks. The Nifty trades below 16,950 mark.

At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, dropped 331.44 points or 0.58% at 56,983.84. The Nifty 50 index lost 129.90 points or 0.76% at 16,942.70.

Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) (down 1.41%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 1.87%) and ICICI Bank (down 0.84%) dragged the market.

Broader markets suffered minor losses. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 1.11%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 0.56%.

Sellers outnumbered the buyers. On the BSE, 1,434 shares rose and 1,816 shares fell. A total of 96 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

India reported 6,650 new COVID-19 cases and 374 deaths in the last 24 hours. The country`s active caseload currently stands at 77,516. Meanwhile, India`s Omicron tally jumped to 358 with 88 cases in Maharashtra and 67 in Delhi.

Gainers & Losers:

HCL Technologies (up 2.66%), SBI Life Insurance Company (up 1.84%), Tech Mahindra (up 1.44%), ITC (up 0.58%) and Nestle India (up 0.26%) were major gainers in Nifty 50 index.

Grasim Industries (down 3.38%), NTPC (down 2.45%), Bajaj Finserv (down 2.14%), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) (down 2.10%) and IndusInd Bank (down 2.09%) were major losers in Nifty 50 index.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Allcargo Logistics advanced 2.41%. The board of Allcargo Logistics approved the demerger of CFS/ICD business into Allcargo Terminals and demerger of equipment rental, logistics parks and other real estate assets into TransIndia Realty & Logistics Parks (TransIndia). As per the company`s press statement, the demerger will position the company to accelerate growth across businesses by creating independent business undertakings, with "sharper management focus, better access to right capital, and greater operational and financial flexibility."

Under the scheme of demerger, all three companies will have mirror shareholding, resulting in no change in entitlement of shareholders for each entity. Post demerger, shareholders will get 1 share each of Allcargo Terminals and TransIndia Realty & Logistics Parks for every 1 share held of Allcargo Logistics. The 1:1 ratio will avoid fractional allotment and benefit all shareholders, the exchange filing highlighted.

Ajanta Pharma rallied 2.24% after the company said that its board will meet on Tuesday, 28 December 2021, to consider a proposal for buy-back of equity shares of the company.

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