Rout in Adani group shares, banks drag Sensex 874 points, Nifty ends at 17,600


Equity markets buckled under severe selling pressure to close at 3-month lows on Friday driven by an extended slump in Adani group stocks that soured overall market sentiment.

Banking stocks were the top laggards as claims of high debt of Adani firms made by Hindenburg in its recent report had a sentimentally negative impact on the banking space, especially PSU banks, analysts said.

The BSE Sensex cracked 874 points to close at 59,331, its lowest level since Oct 21, 2022 when it ended at 59,307. The NSE Nifty dropped to 17,604 with a massive loss of 288 points.

Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports were the leading Nifty losers, which ended 18 and 15 per cent lower, respectively. SBI, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank were next in line dropping up to 5 per cent.

Shares of other Adani firms–Adani Wilmar, Adani Transmission, Adani Green, Adani Total Gas, Adani Power, Ambuja Cement and ACC– closed with losses of 5-20 per cent on top of Wednesday’s decline, which came as short-seller Hindenburg Research said it held short positions in Adani Group companies through US-traded bonds and non-Indian-traded derivative instruments and accused the group of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.

Four Adani group stocks listed in the F&O (Futures & Options) segment – Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, ACC and Ambuja Cement witnessed a build-up of Open Interest (OI) on the short-side since the beginning of this week, which is a couple of days prior to the release of Hindenburg report.

As per Reuters, SEBI has increased scrutiny of deals by the Adani Group over the past year and will also study the report issued by Hindenburg Research to add to its own ongoing preliminary investigation into the group’s foreign portfolio investors. Read more

Shares of Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and Dr Reddy’s firmly resisted Friday’s market crash on strong Q3 earnings. Besides, auto, pharma, FMCG indices were the only outperformers in a broad-based selloff, while the Nifty PSB and oil & gas indices were the worst hit with cuts of 5 per cent each.

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Sensex up 4.4% in 2022; ends last trading day 293 points lower at 60,841


After starting on an optimistic note, given the positive mood in global markets, the S&P BSE Sensex rallied to a high of 61393 in Friday’s morning trades. The benchmark index, thereafter, pared gains and slipped into the negative zone as the day progressed owing to weakness in index heavyweights ICICI Bank and HDFC twins.

A heavy bout of selling in late trade, saw the BSE index plunge to a low of 60,744 – down 293 points from the day’s high. The Sensex finally ended the day with a loss of 293 points at 60,841.

Despite the day’s loss, the BSE benchmark managed to gain 1.7 per cent this week, and also signed off the year 2022 on a winning note – 4.4 per cent higher.

The NSE Nifty 50 settled 86 points lower on the last trading day of the year, but was up 1.7 per cent this week and 4.3 per cent in 2022.

The broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices in trade today. The BSE Midcap index gained 0.4 per cent, while the Smallcap index advanced 0.8 per cent. The overall market breadth too was fairly positive, with nearly 2,200 advancing shares versus 1,300-odd declining stocks on the BSE.

In contrast the day’s performance, the broader indices were underperformers in the year 2022. The BSE Midcap index finished with a gain of 1.4 per cent as against the Sensex gain of 4.4 per cent. The Smallcap index was down 1.8 per cent for the year.

Sectorally, the BSE Consumer Durables index moved 0.8 per cent higher in trades on Friday. The Metal and Realty indices were the ofther notable gainers. On the other hand, FMCG, Power and Bankex finished in the negative zone.

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Sensex halts 4-day gaining streak, slips 164 points; realty falls


Halting its four-day gaining streak, equity market ended in the negative territory on Friday amid worries over economic damage from the coronavirus outbreak and profit-booking in some of the recent outperformers.

The S&P BSE Sensex today slipped 164 points or 0.4 per cent to settle at 41,142, with NTPC (up over 3 per cent) being the top gainer and IndusInd Bank (down nearly 3 per cent) the biggest loser.

Reliance Industries (RIL), HDFC, ICICI Bank and L&T contributed the most to the index’s losses.

The NSE’s Nifty50 index ended at 12,086, down 51.55 points or 0.42 per cent.

On a weekly basis, both Sensex and Nifty gained nearly 4 per cent each.

Sectorally, realty stocks bled the most while media and pharma counters advanced the most. The Nifty Realty index fell around 2 per cent to Rs 320.55. On the other hand, Nifty Media climbed nearly 2 per cent to 1,823 points and the Nifty Pharma settled over 1 per cent higher at 8,335-mark.

In the broader market, the Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.57 per cent to 18,350 points while the Nifty SmallCap 100 ended flat at 6,236 levels, down 0.07 per cent.

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Benchmarks flat, mid-caps rally; RIL up 3% ahead of Q3 numbers


After bouts of volatility in the last two trading sessions, markets took a breather on Friday and traded flat for better part of the day. While financial and banking counters traded in the sea of red throughout the day, index heavyweights like Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel, that surged 3 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively in the intra-day trade today, provided the necessary support.

In the intra-day trade, the S&P BSE Sensex hit a record high of 42063.93. At close, the 30-share index was at 41,945.37 level, up 12.81 points or 0.031 per cent. Bharti Airtel, that gained over 6 per cent today, was the top gainer at close. The stock hit an over 2-year high of Rs 503.60 on the BSE amid expectations that the telecom company is poised for strong market share gain if payment due to AGR makes Vodafone Idea exit the industry. On the downside, IndusInd Bank was the top loser, down 2 per cent, due to its high exposure towards telecom companies.

On the NSE, the Nifty50 settled 3.15 points, or 0.025 per cent, lower at 12,352.35-mark. Nifty Bank, financial services, metals and IT indices settled the day in the negative territory. On the other hand, Nifty Pharma gained nearly 2 per cent.

For the week, the Sensex has advanced 0.9 per cent, while the broader Nifty50 has gained 0.8 per cent. Nifty mid-cap index, meanwhile, has risen 4 per cent during the week.

The party in the broader markets continued for the ninth straight session. The S&P BSE mid-cap index was up 0.5 per cent at 15,703 level. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE small-cap index ended at 14,708.70 level, up 0.42 per cent.

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Indices end higher on Friday but Nifty fails to hold 10500 mark


Benchmark indices rose for a seventh straight session on Friday, their longest winning streak since November 2017, on the back of gains in index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank.

Sentiment was also upbeat after retail inflation eased to a five-month low in March, but remained above the central bank’s medium-term target, supporting views that monetary policy is likely to remain unchanged at the next review in early June.

Investors now await January-March corporate results for future direction. IT Major Infosys will kick-start the March-quarter results season later in the day.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended at 34,193, up 92 points while the broader Nifty50 index settled at 10,481, up 22 points.

KPIT Technologies  rose for a third straight session, quoting at Rs 230.5, up 1.86% on the day as on the NSE. KPIT Technologies is up 79.24% in last one year as compared to a 14.96% gain in Nifty and a 33.16% gain in the Nifty IT index.

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