Sensex falls 330 points, Nifty cracks 14,500

The sell-off in benchmark Indian equity indices continued on Friday amid rising COVID-19 cases in India, weak global cues as a spike in global bond yields soured sentiment toward richly priced tech stocks.

In opening trades, Sensex fell 330 points or 0.67% to 48,885, whereas the broader market index Nifty50 cracked 14,500-mark at 14,483 tanking 74 points or 0.51%.

29 of 30 Sensex stocks traded in the red. ONGC fell the most on the Sensex down 4.05%, followed by L&T slipping 2.36%, while M&M, Tech Mahindra & Titan lost over 1.5% each. Kotak Mahindra Bank was the only stock trading with marginal gains of 0.29%.

On the sectoral front, all indices were down with Nifty PSU Bank losing the most down 1.90%, Nifty Realty was down 1.83%, Nifty Auto fell 1.65%, Nifty IT, Nifty FMCG, Nifty Metal & Nifty Pharma were trading with losses in the range of 0.80-1.20%.

Market breadth remained negative as 1,481 shares declined while 259 stocks advanced and 474 remained unchanged on the NSE.

The broader market was reeling under severe selling pressure compared to benchmark indices as the BSE MidCap index fell about 2.5% and BSE SmallCap tanked 2.60%.

Stocks in spotlight

Easy Trip Planners is set to list on the bourses today. The issue price is Rs 187 per share. The company’s IPO was subscribed 159 times. The scrip was quoting in the grey market at a 70 per cent premium, as per unlisted market watchers.

GAIL (India) and Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) have signed a Concession Agreement (CA) for setting up a Compressed Biagas (CBG) plant in Ranchi. As per the agreement, GAIL will set up CBG Plant for processing 150 Tons per Day of Organic Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). The CBG plant will produce 5 Tons of Compressed Biagas (CBG) per day and approximately 25 Tons of Fermented Bio Manure per day.

Vaibhav Global informed that the Shop TJC, UK., a step-down subsidiary of Vaibhav Global has acquired Shop LC GmbH, Germany (100% subsidiary).

Indo Count Industries said that the Project Management Committee of the board of directors of the company has approved expansion of its bed linen capacity by about 20% from its existing annual capacity of 90 Mn meters to 108 Mn meters by debottlenecking and balancing its facilities. Further, the company proposes to make a brownfield investment for adding commensurate cut & sew facilities and for enhancing the capacity for Top of the Bed (TOB) products. This will entail a capex of about Rs. 150 crore.

Zuari Agro Chemicals said that NPK B Plant has been shut down due to a delay in the arrival of raw materials.

Global markets

Overseas, Asian stocks are trading lower on Friday as a spike in global bond yields soured sentiment toward richly priced tech stocks.

Wall Street ended sharply lower on Thursday, with the Nasdaq tumbling over 3%, hit by rising Treasury yields and fresh worries about the coronavirus pandemic in Europe.

Benchmark U.S. Treasury yields hit 14-month peaks on Thursday. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose as high as 1.754%, its highest level since January 2020, leading a worldwide move higher in bond yields. The jump in bond yields came after the Federal Reserve expressed its willingness to allow an overshoot in inflation.

Yields move in the opposite direction to prices. Rising bond yields typically signal confidence about economic recovery and fears about inflation, which can make high growth stocks appear less attractive to investors.

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose last week to 770,000. Thursday’s report from the Labor Department showed that jobless claims climbed from 725,000 the week before.