Sensex falls 180 points, Nifty slips below 15,800 in early trade; metal stocks drag

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Key benchmark indices opened tepid on Wednesday as investors awaited the outcome of the US Federal Reserve’s two-day monetary policy meeting. Markets were volatile in the early trade. At 10:35am, equity benchmark Sensex was down 147.47 points or 0.28% at, while Nifty retreated 70.75 points or 0.45% to  15,798.50.

ONGC, Sun Pharma, Axis Bank, ITC and Mahindra & Mahindra were top Sensex gainers while PowerGrid, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, RIL, Maruti and HCL Tech were among the laggards.

All sectoral indices on the NSE were in the red, while Nifty FMCG bucked the trend.

The broader market was trading mixed as the BSE MidCap index was down 0.63% at 22,763.53 while the BSE SmallCap index was at 25,017.30 down 0.67%.

Earnings today

RITES, CESC, Welspun Enterprises, Commercial Syn Bags, DIC India, Kakatiya Cement Sugar among others are set to release their quarterly earnings today.

Stocks in spotlight

Wipro announced it has extended its partnership with Levi Strauss & Co., one of the world’s largest brand-name apparel companies and a global leader in jeanswear.

Wipro announced its intent to join IBM’s ecosystem of partners using IBM’s new Automation Foundation and IBM Cloud Paks for Automation to manage and modernize its mission-critical workloads across hybrid cloud environments.

Wipro announced a strategic partnership with Aachen, Germany headquartered FEV, a leading global engineering provider, to jointly develop and market worldclass solutions for Software Defined Vehicles (SDV).

Power Finance Corporation posted a multifold jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs 3,906.05 crore in the January-March quarter mainly on the back of higher revenues. The consolidated net profit of the company was Rs 693.71 crore in the quarter ended on March 31.

ICICI Bank said it has raised over Rs 2,827 crore by issuing bonds on a private placement basis. Its board of directors in April this year had approved the fundraising through the issuance of debt securities.

Coal India has decided to close down 23 unviable mines and it would help save the company around Rs 500 crore considering all costs, officials said. The world’s largest miner has shut down 82 such mines in the last three-four years.

Dalmia Bharat Sugar and Industries is planning to increase its ethanol manufacturing capacity to 15 crore litres per annum from January 2022, from the current 8 crore litres. This move is in line with the government’s decision to raise ethanol blending in auto fuels to 20% by 2025 from around 8% currently.

Jubilant FoodWorks reported an over threefold jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 105.30 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2021. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 32.53 crore in the January-March quarter a year ago.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories informed about the receipt of an arbitration award issued by the International Center for Dispute Resolution, U.S., whereby a subsidiary of the company has been asked to pay an amount of US$46.25 million (towards milestones, interest and fees) to Hatchtech Pty Ltd., in relation to the asset purchase agreement entered into between the parties in 2015.

Godrej Agrovet has executed a Share Purchase Agreement with Dr Saar Yavin and Ms Adaya Aroyo (the Sellers), Maxximilk (Israel) and Godrej Maxximilk (GMPL) for purchase/acquisition of 2,95,840 equity shares of GMPL, i.e., 25.10% of the equity share capital of GMPL from the sellers and other incidental matters, thereby making GMPL a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company.

Jubilant HollisterStier LLC, a step-down subsidiary of Jubilant Pharmova, has entered into a manufacturing partnership with Ocugen, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, for manufacturing of vaccine candidate COVAXIN for the US and Canadian markets.

RITES has emerged as the lowest bidder for a tender called by Railway Board, Ministry of Railways for railway electrification work on a turnkey basis. The tender for two packages, package — 1 for 779 RKM on Southern Western Railway and package – 2 for 762 RKM on Northeast Frontier railways, will aggregate to Rs. 1741 crore.

Global markets

Overseas, Asian stocks are trading mixed on Wednesday after their U.S. peers retreated from all-time highs, with investors awaiting a policy decision from the Federal Reserve.

Japan’s exports rose at the fastest pace since 1980 in May and a key gauge of capital spending grew. Ministry of Finance data on Wednesday showed exports grew 49.6% year-on-year in May, led by U.S.-bound car shipments.

U.S. stocks fell slightly on Tuesday with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite slipping from their respective records, as investors awaited the key Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting.

On the data front, the final demand index for producer prices advanced 6.6% for the 12 months ended in May, the largest increase since 12-month data were first calculated in November 2010. On a monthly basis, the producer price index for final demand rose 0.8%. Meanwhile, May’s retail sales data fell 1.3%.

The Fed’s two-day policy meeting started on Tuesday. Although the central bank is not expected to take any action, its forecasts for interest rates, inflation and the economy could move the markets. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will speak to the press after the central bank issues its statement Wednesday.