Market near flat line; Nifty below 20,900

The key equity indices gave up most of the gains and traded near the flat line in afternoon trade. The Nifty slipped below the 20,900 level after hitting the day`s high of 21,006.10 in morning trade. IT, private bank and financial services shares advanced while oil & gas, pharma and PSU bank stocks corrected.

At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 49.61 points or 0.07% to 69,571.30. The Nifty 50 index lost 8.15 points or 0.04% to 20,893.

The broader market underperformed. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index lost 0.66% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index shed 0.70%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,556 shares rose and 2,122 shares fell. A total of 146 shares were unchanged.

Gainers & Losers:

HCL Technologies (up 2.29%), JSW Steel (up 2.25%), LTIMindtree (up 2.13%), Larsen & Toubro (L&T) (up 1.44%) and HDFC Bank (up 1.22%) were major Nifty gainers.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (down 3.53%), Adani Enterprises (down 3.09%), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) (down 1.86%), Divi�s Laboratories (down 1.65%) and Hero MotoCorp (down 1.48%) were major Nifty losers.

RBI MPC Meet Outcome:

The Reserve Bank of India�s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) today, 8 December 2023, announced its decision to keep the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 6.50%. The standing deposit facility (SDF) rate remains unchanged at 6.25% and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate at 6.75%.

All members of the MPC unanimously voted to keep the policy repo rate unchanged. The MPC also decided to remain focused on withdrawal of accommodation to ensure that inflation progressively aligns to the target, while supporting growth.

These decisions are in consonance with the objective of achieving the medium-term target for consumer price index (CPI) inflation of 4% within a band of +/- 2%, while supporting growth.

The real GDP growth for 2023-24 is projected at 7% with Q3 at 6.5%; and Q4 at 6%. Real GDP growth for Q1:2024-25 is projected at 6.7%; Q2 at 6.5%; and Q3 at 6.4%. The risks are evenly balanced.

CPI inflation is projected at 5.4% for 2023-24, with Q3 at 5.6%; and Q4 at 5.2%. Assuming a normal monsoon next year, CPI inflation for Q1:2024-25 is projected at 5.2%; Q2 at 4%; and Q3 at 4.7%. The risks are evenly balanced.

Stocks in Spotlight:

IRB Infrastructure Developers rose 1.74%. The company logged November toll collection at Rs 437 crore against Rs 366 crore in the same period last year.

Knowledge Marine & Engineering Works dropped 3.30%. The company announced that it has received an order from Visakhapatnam Port Authority aggregating to Rs 3.45 crore. The said order includes supply, manning, operation, and maintenance of 1 No Pilot Launch with a Steel hull on hire basis. The contract is for a period of three years and is set to commence from 24 March 2024.

Olectra Greentech shed 0.13%. The company has received letter of award from Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation, Mumbai for supply and maintenance of 40 electric buses. The Value of these 40 electric buses supply would be Rs 62.80 crore.

Titagarh Rail Systems advanced 2.12% after its board approved the opening of qualified institutional placement (QIP) of equity shares with the floor price of Rs 976.10 per share.

Global Markets:

European shares advanced while Asian stocks traded mixed as Japan�s third-quarter GDP was revised downward in a surprise move.

Japan�s third-quarter GDP was revised downward to a 0.7% fall quarter-on-quarter, a sharper slide compared with the 0.5% decline estimated earlier.

The yen was the best-performing Asian currency this week, up over 2% after BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda signaled that the central bank was considering an eventual move away from negative interest rates. The yen rose 0.2% to 143.88 against the dollar on Friday.

Ueda�s comments, made during an address on Thursday, sparked a sharp reversal in bets for more weakness in the yen, while reinforcing expectations that the BOJ will end its negative rate regime in 2024. This helped the yen strengthen past data showing that Japan�s economy shrank more than initially estimated in the third quarter.

US stocks ended higher on Thursday ahead of Friday�s all-important jobs report. The Nasdaq ended sharply higher after Alphabet and Advanced Micro Devices sparked a megacap rally on fresh optimism about artificial intelligence.

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