Nifty below 18,000; IT shares fall for third day

The domestic equity benchmarks traded with significant cuts in morning trade. The Nifty was trading below the 18,000 mark. Shares fell across the board with IT, FMCG and healthcare stocks declining the most.

At 10:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 438.15 points or 0.72% to 60,316.71. The Nifty 50 index lost 123.85 points or 0.68% to 17,989.20.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.67% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index shed 0.24%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1382 shares rose and 1798 shares fell. A total of 112 shares were unchanged.

Firm global crude prices and increasing expectations of March rate hike by US central bank dented investors` sentiment.

Results Today:

JSW Energy (down 0.58%), JSW Ispat (down 4.33%), Larsen & Toubro Infotech (down 3.94%), Tata Communications (up 1.76%), Tata Investment (down 0.37%), Bajaj Auto (up 1.30%), ICICI Lombard General Insurance (down 0.12%), CEAT (down 1.24%), Saregama India (down 2.51%), Mastek (up 1.05%), CCL Products (up 0.66%), Oracle Financial Services Software (down 0.52%), Sterlite Technologies (up 0.09%) and Syngene International (down 1.19%) will announce their quarterly earnings today.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index fell 1.70% to 37,444.70, extending losses for third day. The index has declined 3.56% in three sessions.

L&T Technology Services (down 7.17%), Mphasis (down 2.83%), MindTree (down 1.83%), Infosys (down 1.68%), Wipro (down 1.56%), HCL Tech (down 1.46%), Tech Mahindra (down 1.20%), Coforge (down 1.09%) and TCS (down 1.08%) declined.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Just Dial fell 2.25% to Rs 820.75. The local search engine company reported 61.2% drop in net profit to Rs 19.4 crore on 6.3% fall in operating revenue to Rs 158.90 crore in Q3 December 2021 over Q3 December 2020.

Trident hit a lower circuit of 5% at Rs 61.40. The company reported an 88% jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 211 crore on an 84% rise in revenue from operations to Rs 1,980 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q3 FY21.

RITES added 0.43% to Rs 268.90. The transport infrastructure consultancy and engineering company has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with CSIR-Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) to explore opportunities for cooperation in the infrastructure sector.

COVID-19 Update:

In last 24 hours, India registered 2,82,970 new COVID-19 infections in a day taking the tally to 3,79,01,241, according to the Union Health Ministry data on Wednesday. The country reported 441 new deaths taking the death toll to 4,87,202. The country recorded 1,88,157 recoveries, taking the total number of recoveries to 3,55,83,039. The active cases comprise 4.83% of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 93.88%, the ministry said.

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