Sensex, Nifty at the low point of the day; European markets advance

The key equity barometers tumbled as they hit fresh low in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded tad above the 17,800 mark after hitting day`s high of 18,047.40 in morning trade. Markets in Europe and Asia edged higher.

At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 640.57 points or 1.06% to 59,712.70. The Nifty 50 index lost 185.60 points or 1.03% to 17,806.55.

TCS (down 3.02%), JSW Steel (down 2.74%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 2.62%), IndusInd Bank (down 2.55%) and Bajaj Finserv (down 2.51%) were the top Nifty losers.

SBI Life (up 1.12%), ONGC (up 0.89%), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 0.88%), Britannia (up 0.81%) and BPCL (up 0.77%) outperformed.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index slipped 0.99% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 1%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,173 shares rose and 2,251 shares fell. A total of 144 shares were unchanged.

Investors awaited the release of U.S. jobs data and flash euro zone consumer price index inflation figures that are due later in the day.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Ambuja Cements fell 1.53%. The company has incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary company in the name of `Ambuja Resources` on 5 January 2023 for manufacturing of cement & allied product, alternate fuel and power generation.

Macrotech Developers declined 1.54%. The company said that it had achieved pre-sales of Rs 3,035 crore in Q3 FY23, thereby recording a growth of 16.3% on a YoY basis. The real estate developer`s pre-sales in the same period last year were Rs 2,608 crore. The company`s 9M FY23 pre-sales stood at Rs 9,039 crore, up by 62.3% from Rs 5,568 crore recorded in 9M FY22.

Sobha advanced 2.40%. The company`s total sales value improved by 36% to Rs 1,424.7 crore in Q3 FY23 from Rs 1,047.5 crore recorded in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. Datamatics Global Services (DGSL) said that ICRA has reaffirmed its rating on the debt instruments of the company at "[ICRA] A+ (Stable)/ [ICRA] A1+".

IIFL Finance slipped 1.69%. The NBFC said that it will open a public issue of secured redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCDs) on 6 January 2023, to raise up to Rs 1,000 crore.

Global markets:

European markets edged higher on Friday ahead of key inflation data for the euro zone, which is expected to show a further slowdown in consumer price increases.

After France, Germany and Italy all reported better-than-expected slowdowns over the course of the week, investors are hopeful that inflation has passed its peak across the 20-member common currency bloc.

Such an eventuality could pave the way for the European Central Bank to temper its aggressive monetary policy tightening cycle and limit the continent`s economic pain.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks advanced as investors braced for crucial U.S. jobs data later in the day that should provide clues on how aggressive the Federal Reserve will be in tightening policy.

The Wall Street`s main indices lost more than 1% on Thursday as evidence of a tight labor market eroded hopes that the Federal Reserve could pause its rating hiking cycle anytime soon as it keeps focused on inflation.

U.S. private payrolls increased more than expected in December. The U.S. ADP private payrolls report showed employers added 235,000 jobs in December. Data for November was unrevised to show 127,000 jobs added.

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