Sensex Gives Up Gains To End Lower For A Third Straight Day, Falls 372 Points; IndusInd Bank, HDFC Top Losers

Indian share markets reversed gains in today's trading session amid losses in banks, telecom, and IT stocks.

India's retail inflation remained elevated in June which further dented sentiment.

India's annual consumer inflation remained painfully above the 7% mark, beyond the central bank's tolerance band for the sixth month in a row, official data showed on Tuesday, raising prospects of more rate hikes by the central bank next month.

Now the market's focus is on the US consumer price index due later in the day, to gauge the path of interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 372 points (down 0.7%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed lower by 92 points (down 0.6%).

HUL, Asian Paints, and Sun Pharma were among the top gainers today.

IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel, and HDFC, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

Bharti Airtel's share price is falling as the Adani group has announced its foray into the telecom sector.

Ever since IT major TCS released its Q1 results, IT stocks are falling.

HCL Tech has announced an interim dividend along with posting its Q1 results.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 15,973, down by 88 points, at the time of writing.

Bucking the trend broader markets ended in the green. The BSE MidCap index ended higher by 0.3% and the BSE SmallCap index ended on a flat note.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note today with stocks in the banking sector, financial services sector, and IT sector witnessing most of the selling.

While stocks in the pharma sector, FMCG sector, and metal sector witnessed most of the buying.

Shares of Varun Beverages and Adani Total Gas hit their 52-week highs today.

Asian share markets ended on a mixed note today, though gains were limited by ongoing worries about a possible recession and China's latest Covid-19 outbreak.

The Nikkei ended the day up by 0.5%. While the Shanghai Composite inched up by 0.1% and the Hang Seng plunged by 0.2%.

The rupee hit a new record low today and is trading at 79.59 against the US $.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading up by 0.2% at Rs 50,549 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading flat at Rs 56,461 per 1 kg.

Despite trading on a flat note today, silver prices have fallen and have taken quite a knock in recent weeks.

In news from the pharma space, Bajaj Healthcare was the top buzzing stock today.

Bajaj Healthcare has announced its entry into the opiate processing business as the government seeks to boost the yield of alkaloids used in various drugs.

The company has been awarded two tenders for manufacturing concentrated poppy straw, alkaloids, and active pharmaceutical ingredients from unlanced poppy capsules along with straw through CPS and opium gum from the government.

In an exchange filing, the company said that it was the first private player in the country to be awarded a tender for opiate processing, a highly regulated and government-owned business.

The company received a letter of award on July 12 for manufacturing APIs from the processing of 500 MT of the unlanced poppy capsules along with straw on an annual basis.

It also received another letter of award to manufacture alkaloids and APIs from the processing of 100 MT of opium gum on an annual basis.

Bajaj Healthcare plans to execute both the tenders at its API manufacturing unit in Gujarat's Savli.

Post the announcement, Bajaj Healthcare's share price ended 4.6% higher on the BSE today.

Moving on to news from the banking sector, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman may meet officials from the central bank on Thursday to discuss IDBI Bank's strategic sale.

The current structure has limitations as to who can buy a stake in IDBI bank. Finance Ministry to seek relaxation in 10% holding limit by private equity firms in IDBI.

Finance Ministry to decide the quantum of stake sale in IDBI after assessing what relaxations the central bank agrees to.

The Finance Ministry had earlier said there is interest from the market for IDBI sales.

IDBI Bank's share price ended 4.3% higher on the BSE today.

Since we're discussing banking stocks, look at the NPA levels which are currently at 5-year lows, but are still a substantial 6% of the overall loan book.

For now, higher lending rates have offered a bigger margin to banks. Lending rates have gone up but deposit rates are yet to catch up.

So, for a few quarters, higher net interest margins will make the banks look healthy.

Moving on, Care Ratings was in focus today.

A proposal for the buyback of equity shares will be considered by the company in its board meeting which is scheduled for 20 July 2022.

According to the experts, the main objective of the share buyback scheme is to arrest the fall in the value of a stock by reducing the supply of the stock, which essentially pushes up the share price through a better price to earnings (P/E) multiple.

CARE Ratings is one of the leading credit rating agencies in India.

It covers many rating segments including manufacturing, infrastructure, a financial sector including banks, and non-financial services, among others.

Care Ratings' share price ended 12.8% higher on the BSE today.


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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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