Sensex dips for 3rd day, slips 59 points; Ambuja Cement falls 6%, HDFC up 1%
The volatile streak in the markets extended into a third straight day on Friday as investors continued to be on edge about the ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
The S&P BSE Sensex ended an extremely choppy day 54 points, or 0.1 per cent, lower at 57,833 levels, while the Nifty50 shut shop at 17,276, down 28 points or 0.16 per cent.
Reliance Industries, Infosys, Ultratech Cement, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, and M&M were the major drags on the Sensex today, accounting for most of the losses. This downside was capped by gains in HDFC twins, L&T, TCS, and Axis Bank.
In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices shed 0.8 per cent each with individual stocks, including Gland Pharma, Honeywell Automation, Astral Ltd, Hindustan Media Ventures, Asian Energy Services, and Unichem Labs cracking between 4 per cent and 8 per cent.
On the sectoral front, key indices ended in the negative zone led by the Nifty Realty index (down 1.2 per cent) and the Nifty Pharma index (down 0.8 per cent). On the upside, the Nifty Bank and Financial Services indices managed to close 0.2 per cent higher each.
Ambuja Cements slipped nearly 6 per cent on reporting a weak operational performance for December quarter (Q4) with margin contraction of 651 bps quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), 660 bps year-on-year (YoY) to 15.2 per cent on account of higher fuel prices and flat realisations.
Shares of G R Infraprojects hit an all-time low of Rs 1,485.80, down 4 per cent on the BSE in Friday’s intra-day trade. The stock of construction & engineering company has fallen 22 per cent thus far in the month of February.
A strong performance in the December quarter and plans for distribution and manufacturing expansion are positive triggers for one of the largest global franchisees of PepsiCo outside of the US, Varun Beverages. Revenue performance for the bottler of PepsiCo’s range of carbonated beverages was much higher than estimates at 30 per cent.
Shares of TCPL Packaging surged 14 per cent to a hit 52-week high of Rs 694 on the BSE in Friday’s intra-day trade on a healthy outlook. The stock of the sustainable packaging solutions producer has surpassed its previous high of Rs 662 touched on February 6, 2022. It had hit a record high of Rs 780 on June 29, 2016.
Here are some picks from the week gone by.
