Nifty above 16,300; metal stocks slump

The benchmarks indices pared early losses and traded with modest gains in morning trade. The Nifty traded above the 16,300 mark. While auto, pharma and realty stocks advanced, metal stocks slumped.

At 10:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 257.22 points or 0.47% to 54,583.61. The Nifty 50 index added 60 points or 0.37% to 16,326.15.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.63% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.33%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 1,701 shares rose and 1,354 shares fell. A total of 175 shares were unchanged.

Persisting inflation worries, looming fears of sharp interest rates hikes and worsening the global economic outlook continued to weigh on investors` sentiments.

Results Today:

Divi`s Laboratories (up 0.94%), Zomato (up 0.43%), Bharat Electronics (up 0.30%), Ramco Cements (down 0.80%), The New India Assurance Co. (up 0.24%), BirlaSoft (up 0.67%) and Shilpa Medicare (down 1.64%) will announce their quarterly earnings today.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Metal index tumbled 7.05%. The index had advanced 4.20% to end at 5,706.35 on Friday.

Hindalco Industries (down 4.43%), Vedanta (down 4.26%), Hindustan Copper (down 3.63%), National Aluminum Company (down 3.49%) and Welspun Corp (down 1.67%) declined.

On Saturday, the Finance Ministry levied export duty on 11 iron and steel intermediates and trimmed import duty on three key raw materials for steel production and three inputs for making plastic items. The move to reduce import duty on some raw materials including coking coal and ferronickel is to lower the cost for the domestic industry and bring down the prices.

Also, the Centre raised the duty on exports of iron ore up to 50%, while the duty on a few steel intermediaries was hiked to 15%. This has been done to increase domestic availability.

Following the news, Jindal Steel & Power (down 14.97%), Tata Steel (down 12.09%), JSW Steel (down 11.35%), NMDC (down 10.45%) and SAIL (down 10.18%) tumbled.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Pfizer rose 0.51%. The company reported a 25.1% rise in net profit to Rs 125.79 crore on a 2.8% increase in net sales to Rs 549.66 crore in Q4 FY22 over Q4 FY21.

JK Tyre advanced 1.31%. The tyre maker posted a 78.8% fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 38.65 crore in Q4 FY22 from Rs 182.48 crore posted in Q4 FY21. Consolidated net sales grew 13.1% to Rs 3,311.83 crore for the quarter ended 31 March 2022 from Rs 2,927.28 crore posted in the corresponding quarter last year.

Rossari Biotech rose 0.49%. The company reported 8% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 24.1 crore as revenues jumped 101% to Rs 438.9 crore in Q4 FY22 over Q4 FY21.

Glenmark Pharma fell 1.24%. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has issued Form 483 with five observations after an inspection at Glenmark Pharmaceuticals` formulation manufacturing facility based out of Goa in India between 12 May 2022 and 20 May 2022.

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