Sensex tumbles 950 points; Nifty trades below 14,850

Indian benchmark indices opened gap down on the back of negative global cues. Sensex nosedives 963 points 50,107 & Nifty tanked 250 points to open at 14,846.

27 of 30 shares on the Sensex were trading in the red. ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, M&M were the top laggards. On the upside, Maruti, Bharti Airtel & Nestle gained 0.45%, 0.36% & 0.27% respectively.

All sectoral indices on the NSE were trading in the red with Nifty Bank leading the losses down 2.52%; Nifty Realty, & Nifty IT all lost over a per cent. Market breadth favoured the bears as 1,179 shares declined compared to only 496 shares advanced while 510 shares remain unchanged on the NSE.

The broader market outperformed benchmark indices as BSE Midcap was trading with losses of 0.88%. Whereas the BSE Smallcap index lost 0.48%.

All eyes will be on the Q3 gross domestic product (GDP) data, to be released later in the day, which will shed light on whether the economy continued to be in recession in the third quarter of FY21 or it ended with the second quarter only

Stocks in spotlight

RailTel Corporation of India: The company will list its shares at the bourses today. The issue price has been fixed at Rs 94 per share.

SBI: State Bank of India (SBI) and Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enable faster processing of home loans, approvals and to provide other benefits. The collaboration will create win-win business opportunities for all stakeholders. The bank is looking at more builder tie-ups so as to reduce the turnaround time for approving home loans to five days as against 12 days.

Bharti Airtel: Bharti Airtel has raised $1.25 billion through issuance of debt instruments. The debt fund raising by the company comes just before the start of spectrum auction valued at Rs 3.92 lakh crore. This is the first ever dual-tranche US dollar bond issued by the company spread across senior and perpetual issuance. This is the largest issuance by any Indian Investment Grade issuer since January 2019. The order book was over-subscribed about 3 times on final pricing with peak order book of $5 billion at time for final price guidance. The company has priced $750 million of senior 10.25 year bonds at a yield of US 10 Year treasury 187.5bps for an implied coupon of 3.25 per cent.

Mahindra Lifespace: Mahindra Lifespace Developers has acquired 7.89 acres of land to develop a residential project in Bengaluru. The project will offer about 5 lakh sq ft of carpet area. The launch of the project is planned for FY 2022.

Schaeffler India: The company is looking to leverage the IT infrastructure and competence available in India, which offers a high level of cost competitiveness, to develop solutions for the global need as well as for the domestic market.

Infosys: The IT major will add 300 local jobs in Pennsylvania as part of its ongoing hiring plans in the US. The company will recruit for a range of opportunities across technology and digital services, client administration and operations as it expands its new Retirement Services Centre of Excellence.

Kewal Kiran Clothing: The company has incorporated new wholly owned subsidiary (WOS) company namely- ‘K- Lounge Lifestyle’ on February 25, 2021. The company has incorporated wholly owned subsidiary with intent to focus on further developing and enhancing its retail footprint pan India. The incorporation of wholly owned subsidiary will leverage the growth opportunities in the evolving retail space and will help the company is becoming more agile and customer focused.

Global markets

Asian markets declined sharply after a spike in benchmark U.S. Treasury yields damped investor appetite for risk assets. Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea Index slipped 2% each.

European shares closed lower after fluctuating between gains and losses, as investors rotated out of defensive and growth sectors.

Dow Jones tumbled more than 550 points (1.7%) as a wave of selling that began in the technology sector took down swaths of the market. Stocks’ momentum has faltered the past week as investors have faced a sharp and swift rise in bond yields. Nasdaq Composite nosedived 3.7% and S&P 500 declined over 2%. US 10-Year Bond Yield spiked to high of 1.60% and closed at 1.51% one year high.