Sensex Ends 470 Points Lower; Tata Motors & Tata Steel Fall 6%
Indian share markets witnessed huge selling pressure today, in line with global equities, and fell on to bearish territory.
After opening on a flat note, benchmark indices slipped into the red and extended losses amid heavy selling in metal and healthcare stocks.
That apart, expectations that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may set out proposals in a discussion paper this week, recommending that bigger shadow banks hold a share of deposits in cash, gold or government securities, weighed on financial stocks.
At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 470 points. The NSE Nifty ended down by 152 points.
Reliance Industries was among the top gainers today. ONGC, on the other hand, was among the top losers today.
SGX Nifty was trading at 14,255, down by 205 points, at the time of writing.
The BSE Mid Cap index ended down by 2%. The BSE Small Cap index ended lower by 1.9%.
Sectoral indices ended on a negative note with stocks in the healthcare sector and metal sector witnessing maximum selling pressure.
Shares of HDFC Bank and Indian Energy Exchange hit their respective 52-week highs today.
Asian stock markets ended higher today as investors cheered better-than-expected gross domestic product (GDP) data pointing to a strong recovery in China.
As of the most recent closing prices, the Nikkei ended down by 1% and the Hang Seng ended up by 1%. The Shanghai Composite ended up by 0.8%.
US stock futures are trading lower today. Nasdaq Futures are trading down by 16 points (down 0.1%), while Dow Futures are trading down by 65 points (down 0.2%).
The rupee is trading at 73.29 against the US$.
Gold prices are trading up by 0.1% at Rs 48,768 per 10 grams.
This is the first time in 25 years that a benchmark index in India, the BSE Sensex, is trading at a P/E multiple of 40x. The last time the Sensex breached this multiple in October 1994.
Also speaking of the current stock market scenario, note that since the lows in March 2020, the smallcap index has gained more than 100%.
While caution is indeed warranted, Richa Agrawal, Research Analyst at Equitymaster, thinks there is still a lot more steam left to this smallcap rally.
Despite rallying more than 100% since the March 2020 lows, Richa believes small-cap stocks are set for a massive up move in 2021 and beyond.
Richa believes if you focus on the quality of business, margin of safety in valuations, and an optimum asset allocation, you are likely to create huge wealth for yourself.
In latest developments from the IPO space, Nazara Technologies, the cricket games developer backed by billionaire Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, became the first Indian gaming technology company to seek a market debut.
The Mumbai-headquartered startup filed initial public offering (IPO) documents with the market regulator last week on Friday.
Founded by gamer Nitish Mittersain in 2000, Nazara is among the firms that have benefited from a global boom in smartphone gaming that began even before the pandemic drove millions online.
The company is seeking to be among the first major Indian startups to go public.
Nykaa E-Retail Pvt., backed by TPG, is said to be planning an IPO as soon as this year that could value the Indian online cosmetic retailer at more than US$ 3 billion.
Nazara plans to offer up to 4.96 million equity shares for sale, at a face value of Rs 4 each, the filing showed.
Note that food delivery startup Zomato has said it will file for an IPO in the first half of 2021.
In other news, the IPO of Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC), the subsidiary of Indian Railways, was subscribed 51% so far today, the first day of bidding.
The offer received bids for 630 million equity shares against an IPO size of over 1,248 million equity shares.
The retail investors remained strong in the primary as well as a secondary market. The portion set aside for them has subscribed 98% on the first day itself, while the employee portion was subscribed 3.4%.
The IPO size excluded the anchor book which already received a good response from investors. The company raised Rs 13.9 billion of its total issue size of Rs 46.3 billion, through the anchor book.
The company has fixed Rs 25-26 per share as the price band for the issue, which will close on January 20.
How this IPO sails through remains to be seen. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on the latest developments in this space.
Moving on to stock-specific news...
Adani Green Energy was among the top buzzing stocks today.
TOTAL France, a global energy major, will pick up a 20% stake in Adani Green Energy, the renewable power company of Adani Enterprises, by way of acquisition of shares held by the Adani Promoter Group (APG).
This is the second partnership between TOTAL and an Adani group company. In 2018, TOTAL acquired a 37.4% stake in Adani Gas and a 50% stake in the Dhamra LNG project. The JV entailed developing various regasification terminals including Dhamra LNG and a retail network of 1,500 service stations over a period of 10 years.
As part of the current deal, TOTAL will pick up a 50% stake in a 2.35 GW portfolio of operating solar assets owned by Adani Green Energy.
The company will also pick up a 20% stake in Adani Green Energy for a global investment of US$ 2.5 billion.
In February 2020, TOTAL and Adani Green Energy created a 50-50 joint venture at an enterprise value of Rs 173.9 billion, into which Adani Green would transfer its operational solar assets. The total operating renewable portfolio under the JV stands at 2.3 GW.
Adani Green Energy's share price ended the day up by 0.6%.
Moving on to news from the IT sector, shares of Tata Elxsi rallied 7% today after foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) increased their stake in the company by nearly one percentage point during the October-December quarter (Q3FY21).
According to the Q3FY21 shareholding pattern filed by Tata Elxsi, FPIs have increased their holding in the company by 0.87% to 12.62% from 11.75% at the end of the September 2020 quarter (Q2FY21).
FPIs held a 10.54% stake in Tata Elxsi as of June 30, 2020 (Q1FY20), shareholding pattern data shows. They bought an additional 1.30 million equity shares of the company between July and December 2020.
In the past two quarters, FPIs have increased their stake in Tata group company by 2.08 percentage points.
Last week, the company reported strong Q3FY21 results with double-digit quarter on quarter (QoQ) revenue growth and industry-leading operating margins.
The company's revenues increased by 10.9% QoQ to Rs 4.8 billion. In constant currency terms, revenues grew 10% QoQ mainly led by growth in transportation, broadcast & communication and healthcare segment.
Tata Elxsi's share price ended the day up by 5.3%.
Disclosure: Equitymaster Agora Research Private Limited (Research Analyst) bearing Registration No. INH000000537 (hereinafter referred as 'Equitymaster') is an independent equity research ...
more