Sensex Falls 867 Points, Nifty Ends Below 16,500; Bajaj Finance & Axis Bank Top Losers

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Indian share markets remained in the bear territory throughout the day today and ended deep in the red.

Benchmark indices end deep in red tracking week global sentiments, as markets across the globe tumbled.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex plunged 867 points, ending 1.6% lower.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty dipped 271 points, ending at 16,411.

Tech Mahindra, Power Grid, and ITC were among the top gainers today.

Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, and Nestle were among the top losers today.

The broader markets witnessed deep selling pressure as the BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index dipped 2.1%.

Barring power, all sectoral indices ended in red with stocks in the metal sector, IT sector, and realty sector witnessing most of the selling.

Outside the home ground, Asian share markets posted mixed signals. At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei was up 0.7% while the Hang Seng declined by 3.8%. The Shanghai Composite plunged 2.2%.

The SGX Nifty was trading 1.6% lower at the time of writing.

The rupee is trading at 76.87 against the US$.

Gold prices are currently trading up by 0.7% at Rs 51,249 per 10 grams while silver is also up 0.5% at Rs 62,632 per kg.

Speaking of the current stock market scenario, to understand what our readers are thinking, we ran a poll on Equitymaster's Telegram Channel.

Here's what we asked our readers...

How are you dealing with this stock market sell off?

  • Waiting for lower levels before investing more
  • Already starting to invest more
  • Thinking of booking profits and exiting the markets partially or fully

With a response from over 1,200 participants, here is the final result:

(Click on image to enlarge)

 

This poll proves that our readers are looking for ideas to invest...and most may invest right away or at lower levels.

It also suggests that most people are expecting the correction to continue.

Also, amid the ongoing volatility, have a look at the two charts below, in the order they have been placed:

Near Term Volatility in Sensex Compensated by Long Term Gains

(Click on image to enlarge)

chart

The year-on-year change in the Sensex was hardly predictable but someone who stayed invested multiplied every lakh nearly 14 times.

Timing the markets could be suicidal as valuations and volatility put the markets in a see-saw mode.

As an individual investor, you need to sit tight over high conviction stocks and invest consistently to see the magic of compounding.

Because 2022 could be extremely profitable, over time, provided you reset your portfolio with the right kind of safe assets and safe stocks.

In news from the mutual funds spaceAxis Mutual Fund has made major fund manager changes in seven of its funds amid allegations of violations.

The seventh largest mutual fund in the country has implemented personnel changes, including stripping two fund managers of their roles.

This comes amid allegations of front-running against certain officials of the fund house, according to people aware of the matter. However, there was no confirmation from the fund house.

Front-running is trading stock by a broker who has inside knowledge of a sizeable future transaction that is about to affect its price substantially.

Such brokers trade in advance to benefit from the transaction. The practice is illegal in India.

Chief trader and fund manager Viresh Joshi, assistant fund manager Deepak Agarwal, and managing director and chief executive officer Chandresh Nigam are said to be among those affected by the changes.

According to a report, there had been whispers in the mutual fund industry of an audit by the markets regulator into front-running cases within a top-tier asset management company.

Sources also said the Bloomberg IDs of Joshi and Nigam were deactivated on 4 May evening. This is assumed to be significant as it means that the said officials could be barred from the markets.

However, the overall impact on the fund house and its response is yet to be seen.

Moving on to stock specific news, Adani Wilmar hit the lower circuit band for the third consecutive session today.

The multibagger stock has been sliding for the last six sessions losing around 23% in this period.

According to experts, the company's shares have been put under the Additional Surveillance Measures (ASM) list by the market regulator and hence speculative buying on the counter has stopped all of a sudden leading to a sharp decline.

The ASM list is a part of surveillance initiatives introduced by the watchdog and Indian exchanges which includes securities that are currently under surveillance due to price variation, volatility, volume variation, etc.

The company had recently hit a market cap of Rs 1 tn, which has now come down below Rs 840 bn after the recent sell-off. That's an erosion of Rs 160 bn from investors' wealth.

To know more about the company, check out Adani Wilmar's financial factsheet and its latest quarterly results.

Coming to the latest developments from the IPO space, the grey market premium (GMP) for LIC shares plunged further on day 3 reaching Rs 42 apiece.

The overall subscription for LIC's mega IPO stood at 1.26x today led by policyholders and employees who respectively subscribed 3.7 times and 2.8 times the portion allocated for them.

The retail segment sailed through on the third day and was subscribed 1.1x.

The non-institutional investor segment and the qualified institution segment gained some traction and were subscribed 0.6 and 0.5 times.

The largest IPO will now be available for subscription on weekends as well.

Earlier, bidding in LIC IPO was allowed only on 7 May, Saturday and then it was to be resumed on 9 May which would be the last date of the issue. However, now investors can bid for the IPO without any gap.

This would be for the first time that a special dispensation is granted to any public offer.

We will keep you updated from this space. Stay tuned.

 

Disclosure: Equitymaster Agora Research Private Limited (Research Analyst) bearing Registration No. INH000000537 (hereinafter referred as 'Equitymaster') is an independent equity research ...

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