Sensex down 210 pts; Nifty holds 17,300 level

The benchmark indices were trading with modest losses in mid-morning trade, as banks dragged. The Nifty was hovering a tad above the 17,300 mark.

At 11:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, declined 210.31 points or 0.36% at 57,931.74. The Nifty 50 index lost 43.90 points or 0.25% at 17,308.55.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.17% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.61%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,103 shares rose and 1,082 shares fell. A total of 105 shares were unchanged.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 2,298.76 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net buyers to the tune of Rs 4,411.60 crore in the Indian equity market on 15 February 2022, provisional data showed.

Economy:

India`s overall exports in January this year are estimated to be 61.41 billion dollars, exhibiting a positive growth of 36.76% over the same period last year and a positive growth of 38.90% over January 2020. Overall imports in January this year are estimated to be 67.76 billion dollars, exhibiting a slower rate of growth of 30.54% over the same period last year and a positive growth of 30.19% over January 2020.

India`s overall exports in April to January 2021-22 are estimated to be 545.71 billion dollars. This is a positive growth of 37.68% over the same period last year and a positive growth of 23.29% over April-January 2019-20. Overall imports in April-January 2021-22 are estimated to be 616.91 billion, exhibiting a positive growth of 54.35% over the same period last year and a positive growth of 20.15% over April-January 2019-20.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Bank index slipped 0.95% to 37,808.40. The index jumped 3.42% in the previous trading session.

State Bank of India (SBI) (down 1.73%), ICICI Bank (down 1.43%), AU Small Finance Bank (down 1.35%), Federal Bank (down 1.34%) and Axis Bank (down 0.80%) were the top losers in the Bank segment.

Punjab & Sind Bank jumped 6.58%. The public sector lender declared IL&FS Tamil Nadu Power as fraud account and has considered it as bad asset with dues of over Rs 148 crore. The bank has reported it to the Reserve Bank of India. Punjab & Sind Bank said that it had already made provisions amounting to Rs 59.54 crore, as per prescribed prudential norms. Meanwhile, the bank`s board will meet on 17 February 2022 to consider allotting equity shares worth upto Rs 4,600 crore to the Government of India by way of preferential issue of equity shares.

Stock in Spotlight:

Repco Home Finance rallied 5.81%. The company said it has appointed K. Swaminathan as the managing director and chief executive officer for a period of three years. The company also appointed K. Lakshmi as the chief financial officer. T. Karunakaran resigned from the post of chief financial officer of the company with effect from 14 February 2022, due to elevation to the post of whole-time director of the company.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks were trading higher on Wednesday, as investors react to China`s inflation data. Meanwhile, tensions appeared to ease between Russia and Ukraine, boosting markets.

China`s consumer price index for January rose 0.9% as compared with a year ago. Chinese producer inflation for January rose 9.1% as compared with a year earlier.

Wall Street ended sharply higher on Tuesday, as signs of de-escalating tensions along the Russia-Ukraine border sparked a risk-on session.

Russia`s government announced Tuesday that Moscow is starting to return some troops at the Ukrainian border, though NATO`s chief warned that the military alliance has so far "not seen any sign of de-escalation on the ground from the Russian side."

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