Snapping four sessions gaining streak, the Indian benchmark closed lower on Thursday as looming fear about U.S. interest rates hike and rising concerns about the fast spread of the Omicron variant dented market sentiments. The domestic market followed a sharp sell-off in global equities which tumbled after the U.S. Federal Reserve’s December meeting minutes indicated that the central bank may raise interest rates sooner than expected.
The BSE Sensex dropped 621 points, or 1.03%, to end lower at 59,601, while the NSE Nifty settled at 17,745, down 179 points, or 1%. The BSE Sensex opened lower today and declined as much as 932 points, or 1.5%, to hit an intraday low of 59,290 points.
In comparison, the broader markets ended on a flat note. The S&P BSE Midcap index closed 0.05% lower, while the S&P BSE Smallcap index settled with 0.01% gain.
The overall market breadth on the BSE was positive, with 2,089 stocks advancing out of total traded shares of 3,736. Meanwhile, 1,521 shares declined, while 126 ended unchanged.
On the sectoral front, all major indices, barring auto, consumer durables, and oil & gas, ended in negative terrain, while IT and realty declined the most.
The BSE realty index emerged as the worst performer by falling 1.48%, led by losses in Brigade Enterprises, Macrotech Developers, Phoenix Mills, Prestige Estates Projects, and Indiabulls Real Estate.
The realty sector was followed by the IT index, which ended 1.39% lower. The top laggards in the IT space were Persistent Systems, Allsec Technologies, Tech Mahindra, and R Systems International.
Top gainers and losers
The top loser of the BSE Sensex pack was IT services and consulting company Tech Mahindra, which dropped 2.56%. The other top laggards include UltraTech Cement, Reliance Industries, HCL Technologies and HDFC, which dropped in the range of 1.9% to 2.5%.
On the gaining side, private sector lender IndusInd Bank topped the BSE Sensex gainers’ chart by rising 1.74%. Some of the other notable gainers include Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki India, Bajaj Finance and Titan Company, which settled with marginal gains.
Shares in news
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL): Share of Mukesh Ambani-led company dropped 2% even after the country’s most valued firm raised $4 billion in the largest ever foreign currency bond issuance from India. The company has raised $1.5 billion in a 10-year tranche, $1.75 billion in a 30-year and $750 million in a 40-year deal, it said in an exchange filing. The company said the US dollar- denominated bond issue was subscribed over three times with orders mostly from Asia and the US.
Future Retail: Shares of the country’s leading retailer jumped nearly 5% after the Delhi High Court on Wednesday stayed the Amazon-Future arbitration which is going on before an arbitral tribunal over the latter’s ₹24,500 crore deal with Reliance. The court also stayed a January 4 order that had dismissed the Future Group’s two pleas seeking a direction to the arbitration tribunal, adjudicating Amazon’s objections against the former’s deal with RIL.
Wockhardt: Shares of pharma major ended marginally higher after its board approved a proposal to raise up to ₹1,000 crore through a rights issue. The raised capital will be used to repay subordinated debt due, finance research and development initiatives, and to meet general corporate purposes, among others.
Vedanta: The share price of mining giant rose over 1% after the company said that its aluminum business had entered into a pact with GEAR India to set up lithium-ion battery-powered electric forklifts in the country.
RBL Bank: The private lender saw its share rising 2.5% after it reported 5% year-on-year growth in gross advances to ₹59,941 crore as of December 31, 2021, as per the provisional data released by the bank. The lender had posted gross advances of ₹57,092 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.
NHPC: Shares of state-owned hydropower major climbed 1.75% after it inked an agreement with Green Energy Development Corporation of Odisha Ltd (GEDCOL) to form a joint venture (JV) for setting up a 500-megawatt (MW) floating solar power projects in Odisha.
Bharti Airtel: Shares of telecom major rose 1.5% after it formed a joint venture with Hughes Communications for satellite broadband services.
U.S. Fed rate hike fears spook global markets
Shares in the Asia-Pacific region tumbled on Thursday after the details of the U.S. Fed’s December policy meeting minutes sparked fears that the central bank could tighten credit sooner than expected. Adding to it, the continued rise in the Omicron coronavirus variant across the world also weighed on markets.
Japan’s Nikkei emerged as the biggest loser in the region’s major markets by falling 2.88%, followed by Australia’s ASX 200 index, which dropped 2.74%.
In mainland China, the Shanghai composite dipped 0.25%, while the Shenzhen component shed 0.66%.
In a similar trend, South Korea’s KOSPI plunged 1.13%, while Thailand’s Set Composite tumbled 1.4%.
Bucking the trend, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.7% amid rebound in real estate major China Evergrande Group which surged following a report that the company will seek a six-month delay in making payments on an onshore bond.
Meanwhile, in the European market, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC dropped over 1% each, following weak cues from Wall Street. The UK’s FTSE 100 Index also tumbled 0.7% in early trade, while Italy’s FTSE MIB index slipped 0.9%. Similarly, Spain’s IBEX index fell 0.75% in early deals.
In the overnight trade, Wall Street closed lower after the Fed’s December policy meeting minutes indicated that it might raise interest rates sooner than expected. Policymakers also signalled that the central bank could also reduce its $8.5 trillion balance sheet to tame high inflation. Reacting to the news, the S&P 500 fell 1.94%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.07%. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite nosedived 3.34%, hitting its biggest one-day percentage loss since February.
