After opening the day marginally lower, Indian share markets extended the downtrend as the session progressed and ended the day lower.

Bears were on the prowl on Friday as uncertainty over the timing of the Fed rate cut resurfaced following hotter-than-expected wholesale inflation data in the US.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood down by 453 points (down 0.6%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed lower by 150 points (down 0.7%).

Bharti Airtel, UPL, and Bajaj Finance were among the top gainers today.

BPCL, M&M, and Coal India on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The GIFT Nifty ended at 22,121 down by 142 points.

Broader markets ended the day mixed. The BSE Mid Cap ended 0.5% lower and the BSE Small Cap index ended 0.3% higher.

Barring the telecom sector and FMCG sector all other sectoral indices are trading negative, with stocks in the auto sector, oil & gas sector, and energy sector witnessing selling pressure.

Shares of Colgate and Hitachi Energy hit their respective 52-week highs today.

The rupee is trading at 82.8 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading 0.5% higher at Rs 65,888 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading 0.7% higher at Rs 75,720 per 1 kg.
 

Why Olectra Greentech Share is Falling

In news from the auto sector, EV busmaker Olectra Greentech's shares fell 5% on 15 March after it Election Commission documents revealed that its holding company, Megha Engineering & Infrastructures (MEIL), was the second highest purchaser of electoral bonds.

The Election Commission put up on its website the data on electoral bonds on 14 March, a day ahead of the Supreme Court-fixed deadline. MEIL bought electoral bonds worth Rs 9.7 bn.

Hyderabad based MEIL purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 1.4 bn in April 2023 and next month the same company bagged Rs 144 bnworth twin tunnel from Thane to Borivali project by beating L&T in a bid floated by Maharashtra government's nodal agency MMRDA.

If we compare the performance of JBM Auto and Olectra Greentech on the stock market, Olectra Greentech is leading with gains of 447.2% in the last year, as against JBM Auto, which gave a 295% return.

Aurobindo Pharma subsidiary's Telangana plant was slapped with seven observations in its Form 483 after inspection of the unit from 19 to 29 February. The US drug regulator noted that procedures to prevent contamination were not followed, and written records were not maintained, leading to unexplained discrepancy.

The US FDA also found that equipment was not suitably located to facilitate operations. It added that employees engaged in manufacturing and processing the drug product lack training. The plant did not have procedures to validate the performance of the manufacturing process and drugs.

On 29 February, the company had restarted production in its terminally sterilized product lines at its Unit-III which was temporarily stopped to address some of the observations of the US FDA in their recent inspection.
 

L&T Technology Bags Cybersecurity Contract

Moving on to news from the IT sector, shares of Larsen and Toubro Technology Services advanced over 2% to Rs 5,385 on 15 March after the company won a Rs 800-crore order to provide advanced cyber security solutions for the state, enhancing public safety in Maharashtra.

The project involves creating an advanced cybersecurity system and setting up a cybersecurity and cybercrime prevention center. It will use artificial intelligence and digital forensic tools to ward off cyber threats and resolve cyber attacks.

This deal will set the stage for LTTS to scale its offerings for our global clientele.

Moving on to news from the railway sector, shares of RailTel surged up to 7% on 15 March, a day after the company declared that it had received a Rs 1.1 bn work order from Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC).

The order is for setting up IP-MPLS network connectivity in Odisha under OdishaNet Phase 1.0. The project needs to be executed by September 2025.

RailTel Corporation is a Mini Ratna (Category-I) PSU and is one of the largest neutral telecom infrastructure providers in the country, owning a pan-India optic fiber network on the exclusive right of way (ROW) along the railway track. The company's segments include telecom services and project work services.

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