Sensex slides 398 pts, Bajaj Auto slips over 5%

The domestic equity benchmarks continued to trade with significant losses in afternoon trade. The Nifty hovered below the 17,350 mark. Banks, realty and financial services scrips were in demand while media, metal and auto stocks tumbled.

At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 397.74 points or 0.67% to 59,066.19. The Nifty 50 index lost 140.20 points or 0.80% to 17,325.60.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 1.32% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 1.47%.

Sellers outnumbered buyers. On the BSE, 797 shares rose and 2,680 shares fell. A total of 179 shares were unchanged.

A stronger-than-expected U.S. inflation, possibility of further rate hikes and a more hawkish Federal Reserve coupled with uncertainty over the recovery of the Chinese economy weighed on investor sentiment.

Gainers & Losers:

Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 1.45%), ICICI Bank (up 1.23%), State Bank of India (up 0.81%), Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) (up 0.48%) and HDFC Life Insurance Company (up 0.46%) were major Nifty gainers.

Adani Enterprises Tata Steel (down 10.64%), Bajaj Auto (down 5.21%), UPL (down 4.16%), Tata Steel (down 3.87%) and Tata Motors (down 3.23%) were top Nifty losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

SpiceJet gained 2.39%. The low-cost air carrier said that its board has approved a proposal to transfer cargo business on a slump sale basis to its subsidiary and also raise fresh capital via qualified institutional placement (QIP). The board will seek the approval of members of the company for the fundraise.

One 97 Communications (Paytm) rose 1.55%. News reports suggested that Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti Group was looking to buy stake in the fintech company.

According to the media reports, Sunil Mittal, the founder of Bharti Enterprises, wanted to merge Airtel Payments Bank with Paytm Payments Bank through a stock transaction and also wanted to purchase Paytm shares from other shareholders.

However, some other media reports suggested that the talks between Bharti Group and Paytm did not progress as the management of the fintech company declined to give up management control.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone added 0.63% after the company said that its handled cargo volumes had crossed the 300 million metric tonne (MMT) mark on Thursday (23 February 2023). The company registered the said the cargo volumes within a span of 329 days this year. Last year, APSEZ had recorded the aforementioned cargo volume after a period of 354 days.

Dr. Reddy`s Laboratories declined 2.20%. The company said that its wholly owned subsidiary Dr. Reddy`s Laboratories SA has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the U.S. generic prescription product portfolio of Australia-based Mayne Pharma Group.

Global Markets:

Asian shares declined across the board on Monday, after major indexes on Wall Street recorded their worst week for 2023.

The US stocks declined on Friday, following a bigger-than-expected increase in the latest reading for personal consumption expenditures, the Federal Reserve`s preferred inflation gauge.

The personal-consumption-expenditures price index showed the cost of U.S. goods and services jumped 0.6% in January, according to a Bureau of Economic Analysis report Friday.

The more closely followed core index, which is the Fed`s preferred inflation measure, also rose 0.6% in January, climbing 4.7% over the past 12 months.

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