Sensex down 697 points; Nifty hovers at 17,400

Equity indices came off the day`s low in afternoon trade. The Nifty hovered at 17,400 mark. Barring the Nifty Media index, all the sectoral indices on the NSE traded in the red.

At 13:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 697.14 points or 1.18% to 58,251.86. The Nifty 50 index fell 210 points or 1.19% to 17,395.25.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 1.21% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index lost 1.14%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 974 shares rose and 2276 shares fell. A total of 99 shares were unchanged.

Weak global cues spoiled investor sentiment as the higher-than-expected US inflation data raised fears of aggressive rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve.

Yield on the 10-year US Treasury note ended above 2% for the first time since August 2019 after US inflation came in higher than expected. US consumer prices rose at an annual rate of 7.5% in January, which was the highest print since February 1982.

Further, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard said that the data had made him "dramatically" more hawkish and that he now wanted a full percentage point of interest rate hikes by Jul 1.

Investors are fully pricing in a rate hike of at least 25 basis points from the Fed at its Mar 15-16 policy meeting, and forecasting a significant chance of a 50 basis points hike.

Economy:

All India Association of Industries has said that the bi-monthly monetary policy announced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is accommodative and intends to promote economic recovery and growth. In a statement, President, All India Association of Industries, Vijay Kalantri said, GDP growth prediction of 7.8% is realistic.

RBI on Thursday maintained status quo in policy rates as the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously to keep the policy repo rate at 4% to keep the stance accommodative. While announcing the Bi-monthly policy RBI Governor Shaktikant Das said, MSF rate and bank rate will remain unchanged at 4.25%. Reverse repo rate will also remain unchanged at 3.35%. Shaktikant Das said that MPC has voted 5-1 to continue accommodative monetary policy stance "as long as necessary" to revive and sustain growth and mitigate impact of COVID-19 on the economy, while ensuring inflation remains within target.

Das projected real GDP growth at 9.2% for 2021-22 and said that it is modestly above level of GDP for 2019-20. Real GDP growth for 2022-23 was projected at 7.8%. CPI inflation for 2022-23 was projected at 4.5%.

Gainers & Losers:

Indian Oil Corporation (up 2.17%), IndusInd Bank (up 1.25%), Tata Steel (up 1.06%) and NTPC (up 0.62%) were top gainers in Nifty 50 index.

Grasim Industries (down 3.14%), Infosys (down 2.77%), Nestle India (down 2.65%), Tech Mahindra (down 2.49%) and Britannia Industries (down 2.42%) were top losers in Nifty 50 index.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Divis Laboratories rose 0.68% after the company`s consolidated net profit rose 91.71% to Rs 902.24 crore on 46.54% increase in net sales to Rs 2493.24 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q3 FY21. Profit before tax rose 60.99% to Rs 1033.66 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q3 FY21.

JSW Steel rose 0.07%. The steel maker`s standalone crude steel production for the month of January 2022 grew 15% year on year to 16.46 lakh tonnes as against 14.32 lakh tonnes in January 2021. On a sequential basis, crude steel production rose by 8% in January 2022 from 15.26 lakh tonnes produced in December 2021. While the production of flat rolled products increased by 23% to 12.47 lakh tonnes, production of long rolled products rose 4% to 3.74 lakh tonnes in January 2022 over January 2021. Sequentially, production of flat rolled products and that of long rolled products rose 12% and 16%, respectively.

Sun TV Network rose 1.49%. The media company`s standalone net profit rose 3.52% to Rs 457.39 crore on 6.25% rise in net sales to Rs 1033.10 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q3 FY21. Sun TV Network`s advertisement revenues rose 22.45% for the quarter ended 31 December 2021. The EBITDA grew by 20.18% at Rs 721.87 crore for the current quarter as against Rs 600.68 crore during the previous quarter ended 31st December 2020.

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