Barometers decline further; IT shares under pressure

The market declined further in mid-afternoon trade, dragged by weakness in IT shares. At 14:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, tanked 1284.91 points or 4.36% at 28,183.58. The Nifty 50 index was down 372.80 points or 4.34% at 8,224.95.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 2.62% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index shed 1.42%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 983 shares rose and 1118 shares fell. A total of 160 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, the breadth was weak with 2 stocks advancing and 48 stocks declining.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index fell 5.28% to 12,090.20, declining the most among the other sectoral indices on the NSE.

MindTree (down 11.63%), Tech Mahindra (down 8.70%), Oracle Financial Services Software (down 6.17%), Infosys (down 5.36%), TCS (down 5.21%), Wipro (down 4.02%), HCL Technologies (down 3.76%), Persistent Systems (down 1.63%) and Hexaware Technologies (down 0.71%) declined.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Biocon added 3.10% to Rs 279. The company said that Biocon Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Biocon, has received the Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for the Pre-Approval Inspection (PAI) of its insulins manufacturing facility in Malaysia, for insulin Glargine. The inspection was conducted between 10 and 21 February 2020. The inspection has been closed with a 'VAI' (Voluntary Action Indicated) classification in the EIR, for the three observations issued at the conclusion of the inspection in February 2020.

Hindustan Aeronautics rose 0.11% at Rs 533.55. HAL said after market hours yesterday, 31 March 2020, that the encouraging performance of the company in 2019-20 has been achieved in-spite of difficulties in cash flows, interruptions in operations due to workmen agitation and the interruption arising in the month of March 2020 due to COVID 19 lockdown which has affected the final tests and certification of certain additional aircraft that were under final stages of production. During the current financial year HAL produced 31 new aircraft/helicopters, 117 new engines and overhauled 199 aircraft/helicopters and 490 engines.

Suprajit Engineering hit an upper circuit limit of 10% at Rs 121.85 after HDFC Mutual Fund on Tuesday (31 March) bought 30 lakh shares, or 2.14% stake, in the company at Rs 113.50 each on the NSE. HDFC Mutual Fund purchased the stake for HDFC Small and Mid-Cap fund. National Westminster Bank Plc (as depositary of First State Asia Pacific Fund A) sold 25,00,932 shares of Suprajit Engineering at Rs 113.50 each on the NSE on Tuesday (31 March).

Numbers to Track:

In the commodities market, Brent crude for June 2020 settlement was down $1.47 to $24.88 a barrel. The contract fell 7 cents to settle at $26.35 a barrel in Tuesday's trading session.

MCX Gold futures for 3 April 2020 settlement fell to 0.20% to Rs 43167.

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