After opening the day on a flat note, Indian shares reversed early gains to end the day 0.6% lower.

Bucking the global trend, domestic equity markets fell on Friday bogged down by profit booking in IT stocks, and heavyweights like Reliance Industries, L&T, and financials.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 389 points (down 0.6%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed lower by 113 points (down 0.6%).

Nestle, Titan, Sun Pharma were among the top gainers today.

HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, and Infosys on the other hand were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 18,585, down by 143 points, at the time of writing.

Broader markets settled on a negative note. The BSE MidCap inched 0.5% lower while the BSE SmallCap index ended 1% lower.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the FMCG sector, and the healthcare sector witnessing heavy buying.

While stocks in the IT sector, realty sector, and energy sector witnessed selling.

Among the IT sector stocks HCL Tech and Tech Mahindra fell over 3%

Shares of HUL, V Guard Industries, and Cummins India hit their 52-week highs today.

Asian share markets ended the day on a positive note.

The Hang Seng inched higher by 2.3%, while the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.3%. The Nikkei edged 1.2% higher.

US stock futures are trading on a positive note. Dow futures are trading flat while Nasdaq futures are up by 0.2%.

The rupee is trading at 82.3 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading up by 0.2% at Rs 54,145 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading up by 0.1% at Rs 67,115 per Kg.

Speaking of stock markets, the Bank Nifty is looking good on the charts for December.

December is usually the best month of the year for the benchmark indices. This year seems to be no different. The markets are at lifetime highs.

The index has already hit a new high today with 1% gains.
 

Why HCL Tech share price is falling

In news from the IT sector, HCL Tech tumbled 5.8% today.

This downfall came after Credit Suisse, an international brokerage firm, said that it expects India's top four Indian IT companies to witness a 10-27% valuation-led correction, with HCL Tech likely to be the worst hit.

They believe that there is a high risk of revenue cut for the financial year 2024 in case growth in the US slows down further.

In the latest conference call, the company's management said that its revenue could be impacted due to volatile macros and the impact of higher-than-expected furloughs in the BFSI, hi-tech, and telecom verticals.

All three verticals highlighted by HCL Tech are nearly 50% of the overall revenue of large IT companies.

The firm's management further hinted that price increases are now more selective than they were six to nine months ago.

Due to the persistent headwinds in the IT sector, the shares of HCL Tech have eroded 22.7% of their value so far in 2022.

Bajaj Consumer Care announces buyback

Moving on to news from the FMCG sector, Bajaj Consumer Care climbed 1% today.

Smallcap FMCG company Bajaj Consumer Care today announced a buyback of Rs 808.9 million (m) at Rs 240 per share through the open market route.

On an absolute basis, the maximum buyback price is at a premium of nearly 35% to Thursday's closing price.

The company will buy back 3.4 m shares. The total number of shares amount to 2.28% of the total paid-up equity capital of the company.

Also, the company would have to utilize at least 50% of the maximum buyback size, i.e. Rs 404.4 m, for the buyback and would have to purchase an indicative minimum of 16.85 lakh shares.

The board has also appointed ICICI Securities Ltd as the manager of the buyback.
 

V-Guard Industries to acquire Sunflame Enterprises

Moving on to news from the engineering sector, V Guard Industries was among the top buzzing stock today.

Consumer appliances manufacturer V-Guard Industries has signed a share purchase agreement to acquire a 100% stake in Sunflame Enterprises for Rs 6.6 bn.

The deal will be funded through a mix of internal accruals and debt. The acquisition is in line with V-Guard's strategy to become a significant player in the domestic kitchen appliances segment.

Commenting on it, Managing Director of V Guard Mithun Chittilappilly said,

The proposed acquisition is a key milestone in V-Guard's journey to have deeper engagement with its consumers. He said Sunflame is an iconic brand and is expected to provide significant thrust to V-Guard's plans to become a leading Indian Kitchen appliances player.

The deal is expected to close by mid-January 2023.

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