Sensex falls 442 points at open, Nifty slips below 14,800; HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank top drags

After rallying over 3% in the previous four trading sessions benchmark Indian equity indices opened gap-down on Tuesday, amid weak global cues amid inflation fears. In opening trades, Sensex tanked 442 points or 0.89% at 49,060 while the broader market index Nifty 50 was trading at 14,798 nosedived 143 points or 0.96%.

25 out of 30 Sensex stocks are trading in the red. Kotak Mahindra Bank lost the most was down about 2%, HDFC slipped 1.75%, Bajaj Auto, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finance lost around 1.40%. On the upside, Sun Pharma gained 1.85%, NTPC rose 1.25%, Reliance Industries, ITC and Nestle India were up to 0.24%.

“A sell-off in tech stocks in NASDAQ yesterday might impact sentiments in early trade today. But it is unlikely to become a trend, given the reversal of domestic institutional selling witnessed from June 2020 through Feb 2021. During this period DIIs sold equity worth Rs 124172 crores. This trend is now getting reversed with buys of Rs 10299 crores in March & April 2021and this trend may continue in May since SIP inflows are robust. Meanwhile, the steady decline in fresh Covid cases during the last 5 days gives hope that the second wave will come under control soon. Leading private sector financials – banks, mortgage lenders, fintech companies – appear good buys on corrections,” said Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

On the sectoral front, the Nifty Metal index tanked 1.92%, followed by the Nifty Bank index sank 1.11% and Nifty IT index slipping 1.05% and Nifty Auto was down 0.40%. Whereas Nifty Pharma and Nifty FMCG rose 0.36% and 0.13% respectively.

Earnings today:

Godrej Consumer Products, Siemens, Linde India, KEC International, BASF India, Firstsource Solutions, Granules India, Kalpataru Power Transmission, Neuland Laboratories, Alembic, Huhtamaki India, Dishman Carbogen Amcis, Mahindra EPC Irrigation, DIC India amongst others will announcing their quarterly earnings today.

Stocks in spotlight:

InterGlobe Aviation: The board of directors of the company has approved raising up to Rs 3,000 crore through a QIP process.

Punjab National Bank (PNB): The bank has informed BSE that the meeting of the board of directors of the bank is scheduled on 14 May 2021, to consider and approve Qualified Institutions Placement of equity shares.

Indian Overseas Bank (IOB): The meeting of the board of directors of the bank is scheduled on 17 May 2021 to consider and approve allotment of equity share to GoI on a preferential basis.

Nava Bharat Ventures: The company has synchronized the 60MW IPP in Odisha with the Grid and has commenced power flows for merchant trade henceforth.

HFCL: The company reported a higher consolidated profit at Rs 84.67 crore in Q4FY21 against Rs 5.78 crore in Q4FY20, revenue rose to Rs 1,391.4 crore from Rs 663.19 crore YoY.

HSIL: The company reported profit at Rs 33.02 crore in Q4FY21 against Rs 3.38 crore in Q4FY20, revenue jumped to Rs 633.21 crore from Rs 461.03 crore YoY.

Nxtdigital: Company’s board on May 13, 2021, may consider the proposal of fundraising by offer and issuance of fully paid-up equity shares of the company by way of a rights issue to the eligible shareholders.

Global markets:

Overseas, Asian stocks are trading lower on Tuesday, following a sell-off in tech stocks that weighed down major U.S. indexes overnight.

Technology shares led the broader market lower on Monday as investors dumped high-flying Big Tech stocks, pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 off their record highs.