Sensex, Nifty Fall As Crude Surge Threatens To Disrupt Global Flow On Energy, Commodities
Catch all live updates on share prices, index moves, corporate announcements and more from the Sensex and Nifty, today.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
Brent Crude Price Rises To $113 Per Barrel
Varun Beverages Jumps After Entering Into Agreement To Manufacture Kurkure Puffcorn For Pepsico
'SEBI Penalties On NSE Co-Location Case Was the Highest Among Any Orders'
Manufacturing PMI Sees A Pick Up In February
'Expensive' Viatris Deal Could Bring Additional Leverage Risks To Biocon Due To High Debt, Warn Analysts
Closing Bell
India's stock benchmarks logged losses, despite the significant rebound in the final hour, dragged by auto and banking stocks. The escalation of Russia-Ukraine crisis and the sanctions from the west on Russia threatens to disrupt global flow of energy and commodities.
The S&P BSE Sensex sheds nearly 800 points to 55,468.90. The 30-stock gauge fell to an intraday low of 55,020.10. The NSE Nifty 50
The NSE Nifty 50 declined by similar magnitude to close above 16,600. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. had the largest drop, falling 6.0%.Today, 35 of 50 shares fell, while 15 rose.
The broader markets outperformed their larger peers with both the S&P BSE MidCap and S&P BSE SmallCap little changed. Fourteen of the 19 sectoral indices compiled by BSE Ltd. declined with S&P BSE Auto and S&P BSE Bankex leading the losses. On the flip side, the S&P BSE Metal rose nearly 4.5%.
The market breadth was skewed neither in favour of bulls nor bears. About 1,716 stocks advanced, 1,625 declined and 117 remained unchanged.
"Domestic equity markets crash as geopolitical situation worsens due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Nifty decreased by 1.1%. The markets were also impacted due to the Western sanctions on Moscow", Mitul Shah, Head - Research at Reliance Securities wrote in a note.
"The madness seen last week may have subsided, but the participants are still having anxiety attacks over the Ukraine issue. The average downside in Indian market is 16-17% in past few wars, while recovery was 23% in 3 months and 34% in 6 months. Now in Russia-Ukraine War, Nifty is down 11% from its peak of ~18,600. Even if we assume market recover by 20% by end of December 2022, we will get our year-end target of 20,000 on Nifty, which is based on 22x FY24 earnings".
Russia To Continue Talks With Ukraine Tonight, Reports AFP
Russia and Ukraine could hold their second round of talks tonight.
Details of the first round of talks weren’t publicly announced.
Source: AFP
India Seeks To Avoid Condemning Russia As It Needs Moscow's Weapons & Support In Its Standoff With China
EV Scooter Maker WardWizard Advances On Record Sales In February
Shares of WardWizard Innovations & Mobility Ltd. rose nearly 5% to Rs 84.5 apiece after it registered record sale of 4,450 units of electric two-wheelers in February 2022.
The manufacturer of India's leading electric two-wheeler brand Joy e-bike posted robust sales growth of 1,290% compared to Feb. 2021, when the company sold 320 units.
The company has already crossed 25,000 sales mark for the current financial year.
Source: Exchange Filing, Bloomberg
HDFC Life Insurance Gains Most In 22 Months
Shares of HDFC Life Insurance Co. gained as much as 6.8%, the most in 22 months, to Rs 558.85 apiece.
The stock was the best performer among its peers and trading in the company's call options was triple the average. The stock gained compared to a 1.7% fall in S&P BSE Sensex.
Escorts Gains As SEBI Gives Approval For Kubota's Open Offer
Shares of Escorts Ltd. rose nearly 1.7% after SEBI approved the Kubota open offer to acquire shares from retail investors.
The open offer process should not take over five weeks for completion, according to a note by Edelweiss Securities on Monday.
Edelweiss expects the stock to run up till Rs 1,950 in next few days and final acceptance to be around 80%.
Source: Brokerage note, Bloomberg
TCS Gets Deal From CEMEX For Digital Transformation
Global building materials firm CEMEX selected Tata Consultancy Services to accelerate its digital transformation and improve employee experience for over 4,00,000 people.
TCS will work with CEMEX for next seven years. The information technology giant will utilise AI-driven human-machine collaboration suite to integrate systems.
The digital transformation will enable CEMEX to reduce time to market, improve processing times, productivity among others.
Source: Exchange Filing
Brent Crude Price Rises To $113 Per Barrel
Paint Stocks Plunge Amid Rise In Crude Prices
Shares of paint makers like Asian Paints, Akzo Nobel India, IndiGo Paints, Kansai Nerolac Paints and Berger Paints fell on rising crude prices.
Crude is the key raw material for paint companies.
Source: Bloomberg
European Markets Open Lower
Rupee Leads Decline As Ukraine War Sends Oil Higher
Emerging Asian currencies fell, with Indian rupee leading losses, amid surge in oil prices as the Russia-Ukraine conflict intensifies further.
Brent oil extended its rally above $112 per barrel ahead of OPEC+ meeting.
International Energy Agency has warned that global energy security is under threat following the developments in Ukraine.
Source: Bloomberg
Russia Keeps Stock Trading Closed For The Third Straight Day
Russia’s three-day stock trading halt on the Moscow Exchange is its longest for extraordinary circumstances since October 1998.
The halt came sanctions sent the country's MOEX Russia Index assets plunging.
The benchmark is now 60% lower than its 52-week high it hit in October.
The country’s wealth fund is planning to buy stocks to help stabilise the markets, according to Bloomberg.
Source: Bloomberg
Russia Claims To Have Taken Control Of Kherson In Southern Ukraine
Russia claims to have taken control of Kherson in southern Ukraine.
Russian military says its forces have taken control of Kherson, a port city in Southern Ukraine.
This is the third city Russia has attacked, after Kyiv and Kharkiv.
Attacks have entered their sixth day today.
Source: AFP
HCL Tech Opens Centre Of Excellence With IBM To Modernise Network Infrastructure
HCL Technologies has opened a centre of excellence with IBM to modernise their network infrastructure and optimise operations.
HCL will establish an IBM Telco Initiative practice team to develop network outsourcing and modernization solutions using IBM's open hybrid cloud approach.
HCL Tech is already part of IBM's partner ecosystem collaborating on the IBM cloud for telecommunication.
Source: Exchange Filing
S&P BSE Metal Index Climbs 4%
Top Sectoral Losers
Broader Indices Outperform Their Larger Peers
Mid-Day Market Update: Sensex, Nifty Fall 2%; Banks, Auto Stocks Decline
India's stock benchmarks fell 2%, dragged by losses in banking, auto and consumer discretionary stocks, amid escalation of Russia-Ukraine crisis, which has led to surge in crude prices and threatens to disrupt global flow of energy and commodities.
The S&P BSE Sensex shed over 1,100 points to 55,122.13. The NSE Nifty 50 also declined by similar magnitude to 16,504.
The broader indices outperformed their larger peers. Thirteen of the 19 sectoral indices compiled by BSE Ltd. declined with S&P BSE Bankex, S&P BSE Auto and S&P BSE Finance leading the losses. On the flipside, S&P BSE Metal rose over 3.75%.
The market breadth was skewed in the favour of bears. About 1,520 stocks advanced, 1,701 declined and 146 remained unchanged.
Varun Beverages Jumps After Entering Into Agreement To Manufacture Kurkure Puffcorn For Pepsico
Shares of Varun Beverages Ltd. rose over 5.5% to Rs 998 apiece after the company approved the proposal to enter into an agreement to manufacture "Kurkure Puffcorn" snack brand for Pepsico India Holdings Pvt Ltd.
Analysts at Jefferies say that the move could be a precursor of something big overtime as Varun Beverages enjoys strong relationship with PepsiCo
Jefferies retains its 'high-conviction buy' on Varun Beverages nnd maintains the company as the top pick in the FMCG sector.
Trading volume on the stock was 3.5 times the 30-day average volume at this time of the day. Of the 17 analysts tracking the company, 16 maintain 'buy' and one recommends 'hold'. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implies an upside of 9.3%
Source: Exchange Filing, Bloomberg, Brokerage Notes
Sensex, Nifty Near Day's Low
Ashneer Grover Is No Longer An Employee, A Founder, Or A Director Of The Company, Says BharatPe In A Statement
The company has taken strong objection to Mr. Grover spinning lies and hurling baseless allegations and threats. The Grover family and their relatives engaged in extensive misappropriation of company funds, including, but not limited to, creating fake vendors through which they siphoned money away from the company and grossly abused company expense accounts in order to enrich themselves and fund their lavish lifestyles.BharatPe Statement
Chemplast Sanmar Jumps The Most In A Month
Shares of Chemplast Sanmar rose over 10.8%, the most in a month after the chemical maker's profile was upgraded by India Ratings.
The company's profitability backed by strong polyvinyl chloride prices.
Trading volume on the stock was more than thrice the 30-day average volume at this time of the day.
Source: Bloomberg
'SEBI Penalties On NSE Co-Location Case Was the Highest Among Any Orders'
Started investigations on co-location which was quite complex. We came out with order within our remit and our understanding. The penalties are perhaps highest amongst any orders. There are other enforcement agencies which have their own mandate. The orders passed our quasi- judicial and can be challenged upto Supreme court. And orders require application of mind. Let other agencies come out with their order. Maybe Sebi missed something. The Information came to our notice while investigating the main case. We looked at the main case and then we came to this.Ajay Tyagi, Outgoing SEBI Chairman
Ajay Tyagi, Outgoing SEBI Chairman
Religare Enterprises Jumps After Turning Debt-Free
Shares of Religare Enterprises Ltd. rose nearly 7% in intraday trade after the company announced that it has repaid the Rs 185.50 crore dues owned to its subsidiary, Religare Finvest.
Religare Enterprises is now debt free. The company planst to enter new strategic sectors like asset reconstruction, AIF, insurance broking, digital wealth management.
Source: Exchange Filing
Rupee's Drop Limited By Talks Of RBI Intervention
India’s rupee and bonds decline as a surge in crude oil prices rekindles worries over inflation and finances for the net oil-importing nation. Traders also await a Rs 38,000 crore ($5b) T-bill auction and February PMI manufacturing data.
USD/INR gained 0.4% to 75.6650 on Wednesday.
10-year yields rose 4bps to 6.80%
Source: Bloomberg
Dairy Stocks Advance After Amul & Parag Milk Hike Prices
Shares of Dairy Stocks like Dodla Dairy, Parag Milk, Heritage Foods, Umang Diaries and Hatsun Agro rose in trade.
The rise comes after Amul, one of the biggest dairy producers in India, raised retail prices by Rs 2 per liter from March 1. Parag Milk has also announced a similar price hike.
Companies cite rising costs as the reason for the hike.
Source: Bloomberg
India Yields Mostly Higher
Most yields along the India sovereign yield curve rose, with 14-year bonds moving the most in Wednesday morning trading.
The 3-year yield rose 4.8bps to 5.639%
The 10-year yield rose 3.8bps to 6.808%
The 30-year yield fell 3.5bps to 7.105%
The 3-year-10-year yield spread was 116.9bps, vs previous close 117.9bps
Source: Bloomberg
Energy-Linked Stocks Advance Amid Surge In Oil Prices
Energy, commodities and related companies rose as oil prices surged amid the sanctions on Russia as the Russia-Ukraine tensions escalate.
Here's How The U.S. & NATO Are Using The SWIFT To Sanction Russia
Vikas Khemani's 'Shift Strategies' For Current Environment: Talking Point
Manufacturing PMI Sees A Pick Up In February
Manufacturing PMI rose to 54.9 in February from 54 in January 2022.
Source: IHS Markit
Auto Stocks Decline As Sales Fall, Oil Prices Surge
Auto stocks fell as February sales fell and oil prices surged, putting pressure on demand recovery.
Brent crude rose above $110 per barrel, hurting sentiment as well.
Source: Bloomberg
How Anil Ambani Group Of Companies Managed To Escape Consequence Of 'Fraud' Tag
Analyst Actions: Apollo Hospitals
Reliance Securities initiated coverage of Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd. with a recommendation of 'buy'; price target set at Rs 5,935.
Source: Bloomberg
HPCL Gains After Announcing Plans To Raise Rs 1,500 Crore On Private Placement Basis
Shares of Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd. rose after the company announced plans to raise Rs 1,500 crore on private placement basis on Feb. 28.
HPCL says that the fund raise would be utilised in refinancing existing borrowing and funding of capital expenditure.
The stock advanced 3% in intraday trade. Trading volume was over twice the 30-day average volume at this time of the day.
Of the 38 analysts tracking the company, 30 maintain 'buy' and eight suggest 'hold'. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implies an upside of 33.2%.
Source: Exchange Filing, Bloomberg
Rupee Depreciates 0.60% To 75.7925 Against The U.S. Dollar
Coal India Gains On Strong February Output
Shares of Coal India Ltd. rose nearly 6.5% to Rs 180.5 apiece after the miner reported improved output and sales performance for February.
Company's production rose 3.9% YoY to 64.3 million tonnes in February while sales rose 12% YoY to 57.4 million tonnes.
Trading volume on the stock was eight times the 30-day average volume at this time of the day. The stock has surged over 15% in three days.
Source: Bloomberg, Exchange Filing
Panacea Biotec Gains After Pact To Sell Formulation Brands
Shares of Panacea Biotec Ltd. rose 5%, the most in over a week, after the company executed asset purchase agreement for sale of its pharmaceutical formulation brands in India and Nepal and sales and marketing team engaged in domestic pharma business to Mankind Pharma for Rs 1,872 crore plus GST.
The transaction is expected to be completed within the current financial year.
Source: Bloomberg, Exchange Filing
'Expensive' Viatris Deal Could Bring Additional Leverage Risks To Biocon Due To High Debt, Warn Analysts
Shares of Biocon. fell for the second day as the company's $3.34 billion (about Rs 26,079 crore) acquisition of Viatris Inc.'s biosimilar business is deemed 'expensive' by analysts.
Analysts concurred that the 'bold' deal will forward integrate the company in biologics value chain, but cautioned that the additional leverage risk due to higher debt and executive risk in regulated markets will remain major challenges to be overcome.
Two of the brokerages, Jefferies and Nirmal Bang upgraded their recommendation on the stock, but maintained that the deal was a risky proposition that is likely to lead to high risk-high reward play.
The stock has shed over 4.3% in 2022 so far compared to 9.11% losses for NSE Nifty Pharma Index. It was the fifth-best performing stock in the gauge of 20 stocks.
Source: Brokerage Note, Bloomberg
HDFC Life Has 3.19 Million Shares Change Hands In Two Large Trade
HDFC Life has 1.82 million shares change hands in a large trade.
HDFC Life has another 1.37 million shares change hands in a large trade.
Details of buyers, sellers are not known immediately.
Source: Bloomberg
Sensex, Nifty Off Opening Low; Banks, Auto Stocks Slip, Energy, Metal Stocks Advance
High Risk For Disruptions To Both Crude & Natural Gas
The benchmark US crude oil grade WTI spiked by 11% in early afternoon futures trading, to $106.75 a barrel, the highest since June 2014 ($107.49 a barrel). The war in Ukraine is getting very ugly and destructive and hostilities between the west and Russia is intensifying. High risk for disruptions to both crude and natural gas. We expect crude oil prices to remain positive and WTI could test $110 a barrel in the upcoming session. Crude oil is having support at $100.00–97.70 and resistance is at $106.60–110.00 in today’s session. In INR terms crude oil has support at Rs7,540-7,175; while resistance is at Rs8,179–8,453.Rahul Kalantri, VP - Commodities, Mehta Equities Ltd.
Opening Bell: Sensex, Nifty Shed 1%; Auto Stocks Decline
India's stock benchmarks fell, dragged by losses in auto and banking stocks, amid sanctions on Russia led to surge in crude oil price to $110 per barrel. The uptick in crude prices threatens to disrupt flows of energy, crops and metals.
The S&P BSE Sensex fell over 1.25% (equivalent of over 700 points) to 55,526.93. The NSE Nifty 50 declined by similar magnitude to 16,594.90.
The broader indices outperformed their larger peers with both S&P BSE MidCap and S&P BSE SmallCap little changed. Twelve of the 19 sectoral indices compiled by BSE Ltd. declined with S&P BSE Bankex, Finance and Auto leading the losses. On the flipside, S&P BSE Metal index rose over 2.5%.
The market breadth was skewed neither in the favour of bulls nor bears. About 1,256 stocks advanced, 1,202 declined and 118 remained unchanged.
Gold Prices Remain Near 13-Month High
Trade Setup For Wednesday
Brent Crude Surges To $110 Per Barrel
Follow Live Updates From The Russia-Ukraine Crisis
In Focus: Dairy Stocks After Amul Raises Milk Prices
India's dairy stocks will be in focus after Amul, one of the biggest in the industry by market share, raised retail prices of milk by nearly 4%.
Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, which markets Amul brand dairy products, raised retail prices by Rs 2 per litre effective March 1.
Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation cited higher costs as the reason for the price hike.
In Focus: Heritage Foods, Parag Milk, Dodla Dairy, Hatsun Agro, Nestle India, Umang Dairies, Modern Dairies, Prabhat Dairy.
Source: Bloomberg
Apple Pauses All Product Sales In Russia, Reports AFP.
Last week, we stopped all exports into our sales channel in the country, said an Apple statement.
It also imposed limitations for Apple Pay.
Source: AFP
U.S. President Joe Biden Delivers The State Of The Union Address
Putin is the most isolated he has ever been from the world.
Rendering Putin’s $630 billion war fund worthless through sanctions.
U.S. airspace is being closed to Russian aircrafts.
U.S. forces will not engage in the conflict with Russian forces in Ukraine.
U.S. will release 30 million oil barrels from strategic reserves.
Source: AFP, Bloomberg
Asia Energy-Linked Stocks In Focus As Oil Soars On Russia Sanctions
Shares of Asia’s energy, commodities and related companies are in focus as oil spiked after moves by the U.S. and other major economies to release emergency stockpiles failed to ease concerns of a major shortfall as sanctions mount on Russia.
In Focus: Reliance Industries, HPCL, BPCL, Indian Oil, ONGC, Oil India
Stocks In News
Eicher Motors: Sales up 7.3% YoY to 5,856 units in February.
Escorts: Tractor sales down 45.6% YoY to 6,114 units in February.
Mahindra Logistics: To buy up to 60% of Whizzard for Rs 71.73 crore.
Maruti Suzuki: February sales at 164,056 units vs 164,469 a year ago.
Tata Motors: Passenger vehicle sales rises 47% YoY to 39,981 units, commercial vehicle sales up 11% YoY to 37,552 units in February.
Future Enterprises: Says no immediate impact on deal with Generali after court order on Future Generali stake sale restraint.
Brightcom: SEBI had appointed a forensic auditor in September 2021 over impairment of assets in FY2019-20. The company said the impairment decision was taken due to the Global Data Protection Regulation in Europe and its affects worldwide. The company reported the exchanges on Feb. 28.
Siemens: Sunsole Renewables allotted 26% of its paid-up equity share capital to the company for a consideration of Rs 27 lakh.
Page Industries: Managing Director Sunder Genomal has tendered his resignation.
Eveready Industries: A group of five companies have announced an open offer for acquiring 18,898,688 equity shares (26% stake) at Rs 320 per share. The five companies are Puran Associates, VIC Enterprises, MB Finmart, Gyan Enterprises and Chowdry Associates.
Sterlite Technologies: The company has announced a collaboration with Analog Devices to develop 5G Open RAN radio units.
IndiaMart Intermesh: The company -- via its wholly owned subsidiary Tradezeal Online -- has entered into an agreement to invest Rs 13.75 crore in Adansa Solutions for 26.01% stake.
EaseMyTrip: To consider allotment of bonus shares on March 3.
Tanla Platforms: Announced an exclusive partnership with Truecaller. Truecaller Business Messaging will be exclusively powered by Tanla’s Wisely CPaaS platform.
Aban Offshore: Extends date of sale of rig to March 31.
Ashok Leyland: Feb. vehicle sales 13,281 units vs 12,776 year ago.
Coal India: Feb. offtake 57.4 million tonnes vs 51.3 million tonnes a year ago; Feb. production 64.3 million tonnes vs 61.9 million tonnes YoY.
Future Market Networks: The NCLT allowed to hold shareholders’ meeting.
Tata Steel: The company's subsidiary Tata Steel Advanced Materials will acquire 90% stake in Ceramat Pvt. for consideration of Rs 90,000.
SGX Nifty Hints At 1.2% Loss; Energy Stocks In Focus Amid Spike In Crude Prices
Asian stocks fell on Wednesday as the war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia spiked crude oil prices to nearly $106 a barrel, hurting the outlook for economic growth, aiding demand for sovereign bonds, and threatening flows of energy, crops and metals.
Japan led the losses, Australia and South Korea were steadier. U.S. futures gained after both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 declined on Tuesday. Singapore-traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of India's Nifty 50 Index’s performance, fell 1.2% to 16,508 as of 8:05 a.m.
Demand for havens saw Australian and New Zealand debt join a global fixed-income rally. Treasuries held most of that push higher with the 10-year yield at about 1.75%. Gold and the dollar retained their advances.
Russia said it would press forward with its invasion of Ukraine as the war entered a more brutal stage. At the same time, the moves to isolate and pressure Russia’s financial system and economy in retribution are picking up steam.