Barometers trade with minor cuts, IT shares in demand

The benchmark indices traded near the flat line with minor cuts in the mid-afternoon trade. The Nifty traded below the 17,100. Oil & gas, IT and pharma stocks were in demand while metal, financial services and bank shares corrected.

At 14:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 44.48 points or 0.08% to 57,161.58. The Nifty 50 index declined 2.35 points or 0.01% to 17,013.95.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.01% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index advanced 0.48%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,840 rose and 1,510 shares fell. A total of 145 shares were unchanged.

Concerns continued to persist among the investor community that the US Fed's ultra-hawkish monetary tightening to tame the red-hot inflation could push the largest economy into recession.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s six-member Monetary Policy Committee is scheduled to meet this week during 28-30 September 2022. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das will announce the MPC decision on 30 September 2022, the last date of the meeting. The RBI is widely expected to maintain the balancing act between growth and inflation.

In the past three policy reviews, the RBI's rate-setting panel has raised 140 basis points in total since May this year. Currently, the repo rate, the interest rate at which the RBI lends to the commercial bank, stands at 5.40%.

Numbers to Track:

The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper rose to 7.371 as compared with 7.359 at close in the previous trading session.

The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 81.60, compared with its close of 81.67 during the previous trading session.

MCX Gold futures for 5 October 2022 settlement added 0.31% to Rs 49,300.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was down 0.41% to 113.64.

The United States 10-year bond yield declined 1.15% to 3.835.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for November 2022 settlement rose $1.57 or 1.87% at $85.63 a barrel.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index rose 0.96% to 27,000.10. The index added 1.53% in two trading sessions.

Mindtree Ltd (up 3.56%), Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd (up 2.4%), Coforge Ltd (up 2.29%), Mphasis Ltd (up 1.17%), L&T Technology Services Ltd (up 1.05%), Wipro Ltd (up 1.03%), HCL Technologies Ltd (up 0.92%), Infosys Ltd (up 0.7%), Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (up 0.59%) and Tech Mahindra Ltd (up 0%) edged higher.

Stocks in Spotlight:

HFCL gained 2.02% after the company said that it has received the purchase orders aggregating to approx. Rs 202.60 crore from Reliance Retail; Reliance Projects & Property Management Services and also from one of the overseas customer.

The telecom company has received a purchase order of Rs 167.60 crore from Reliance Retail and Reliance Projects & Property Management Services for supply of optical fibre cables (OFC). The domestic order has to be executed by March 2023.It has bagged another purchase order of Rs 35 crore from one of the overseas customer for supply of various types of OFC & its related accessories. The international order has to be executed by March 2023.

GPT Infraprojects shed 0.21%. The company's board has approved the bonus issue of equity shares in the proportion of 1 equity share for every 1 equity share held by the shareholders of the company as on the record date. The record date for the bonus issue will be fixed by the board in due course. The said bonus shares would be credited within 2 months from the date of board approval i.e. by 26 November 2022.

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