Sensex slips 19 points, Nifty holds 15,900
IT stocks were the biggest drag on profit booking while pharma stocks saw fresh buying
After hitting a fresh lifetime high of 53,290 for Sensex and 15,962 on the Nifty, benchmark indices turned volatile and came off from their highs in the second half of the trading session. IT stocks were the biggest drag on profit booking while pharma stocks saw fresh buying. At close, Sensex lost 19 points, or 0.04% at 53,140 while the Nifty finished flat at 15,923.
“The Indian market opened with gains, however, failed to maintain and ended flattish as profit booking was triggered in major sectors barring pharma. Buying interest was seen in the Pharma sector in anticipation of strong Q1 results. The risk of profit booking is rising due to elevated performance and lack of direction from the western developed markets with flat performance recently. FIIs continue as net sellers in the domestic equity market during the past few days,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
Gainers and losers
Top gainers & losers on the Sensex
Sectoral strand
The Nifty Realty index rose 1.14% to 397. The index has added 6.22% in two sessions. Prestige Estates (up 3.41%), DLF (up 2.29%), Indiabulls Real Estate (up 1.77%), The Phoenix Mills (up 1.71%) and Godrej Properties (up 1.28%) advanced.
Sobha Developers (down 3.13%), Sunteck Realty (down 1.89%), Brigade Enterprises (down 1.83%) and Oberoi Realty (down 1.45%) declined.
Nifty Pharma, Nifty Metal indices rose around 1.1%, while the Nifty FMCG index was up 0.02%.
On the downside, the Nifty IT index lost 1.07% and Nifty Bank was down 0.43%.
Broader markets
The broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices. The BSE MidCap index gained 0.45% to end at 23,130 after hitting a new fresh high of 23,151. Whereas the BSE SmallCap index touched a record high of 26,510 however settled a tad lower at 26,462 adding 0.38%.
Buyers outpaced sellers. On the BSE, 1786 shares rose and 1413 shares fell. A total of 150 shares were unchanged.
Economy
India’s overall exports in June 2021 are estimated to be $49.85 billion, exhibiting a positive growth of 31.87% over the same period last year. Overall imports in June this year are estimated to be $52.18 billion, exhibiting a positive growth of 73.65% over the same period last year.
India’s overall exports in April to June this year are estimated to be $147.64 billion, exhibiting a positive growth of 50.24% over the same period last year. Overall imports in April to June this year are estimated to be $156.58 billion, exhibiting a positive growth of 80.75% over the same period last year.
Primary markets
The Rs 9,375 crore initial public offer (IPO) of online food delivery platform Zomato was subscribed 38.14 times as it received bids for 27,43,23,81,405 shares as against 71,92,33,522 crore shares on offer on Friday (16 July 2021), according to stock exchange data at 4:00 pm. The qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) category was 51.79 subscribed times. The non-institutional investors (NIIs) category was subscribed 32.96 times. The retail individual investors (RIIs) category was subscribed 7.35 times.
Likewise, the Rs 500 crore issue of Gujurat based Tatva Chintan Pharma Chem was subscribed 3.74 times as it received bids for 1,21,89,463 shares compared to 32,61,882 shares on the block on Friday, according to stock exchange data at 4:00 pm. The qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) category was subscribed 50%. The non-institutional investors (NIIs) category was subscribed to 73%. The retail individual investors (RIIs) category was subscribed 6.87 times.
Global markets
European shares advanced at the opening bell while Asian stocks were mixed on Friday, 16 July 2021, as concerns about the economic growth outlook came to the fore.
The Bank of Japan held steady on monetary policy. Japan’s central bank downgraded its real GDP forecast for 2021 to 3.8% growth, as compared with the 4% growth forecast made in April 2021. The Bank of Japan also kept its yield curve control target at -0.1% for short-term interest rates and 0% for 10-year Japanese government bond yields. Yield curve control is a policy to stimulate the country’s economy and entails keeping the 10-year Japanese government bond yield at zero.
US stocks indexes fell on Thursday as energy and technology stocks declined. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday maintained the central bank will continue to evaluate the economic recovery before changing its accommodating monetary policies. The Fed chair spoke before the Senate banking panel in the second day of testimony before Congress.
Meanwhile, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) stuck to its forecast for a strong recovery in world oil demand in the rest of 2021 and predicted oil use would rise further in 2022 similar to pre-pandemic rates, led by growth in China and India.
“In 2022, healthy expectations for global economic growth in addition to improved containment of COVID-19 through the acceleration of vaccination programmes, effective treatment, and natural immunisation, particularly in emerging and developing countries, along with frequent testing procedures, are assumed to spur consumption of oil next year to comparable pre-pandemic levels,” OPEC said in the report.