Barometers trade with modest losses; Nifty regains 17,800 mark

Indices traded near the day's low with modest losses in early afternoon trade. The Nifty recovered after briefly slipping below the 17,800 mark. PSU banks and metal stocks bucked weak market trend.

At 12:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 478.37 points or 0.8% to 59,619.45. The Nifty 50 index lost 123 points or 0.69% to 17,815.75.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.2% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.26%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1772 shares rose and 1532 shares fell. A total of 90 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

In last 24 hours, India registered 3,17,532 new COVID-19 infections in a day, according to the Union Health Ministry data on Thursday. The country reported 491 new deaths taking the death toll to 4,87,693. The country recorded 2,23,990 recoveries, taking the total number of recoveries to 3,58,07,029. The active cases comprise 5.03% of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 93.69%, the ministry said.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rose 0.3% to 17.8725. The Nifty 27 January 2022 futures were trading at 17,824, at a premium of 37.25 points as compared with the spot at 17,786.75.

The Nifty option chain for 27 January 2022 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 50.7 lakh contracts at the 18,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 36.1 lakh contracts was seen at 17,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index slipped 1.3% to 36,800, extending its losing streak to fourth consecutive trading session. The IT index fell 5.22% in four days.

Coforge (down 2.57%), Infosys (down 2%), TCS (down 1.41%), Tech Mahindra (down 1.04%), Wipro (down 0.89%) and HCL Technologies (down 0.78%) were top losers in IT space.

Stocks in Spotlight:

L&T Infotech fell 0.25%. The IT company reported a 11% increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 612 crore on a 9.8% rise in revenue to Rs 4137.6 crore in Q3 FY22 over Q2 FY22. Profit before tax rose by 11% quarter on quarter and 17.8% year on year basis to Rs 823.70 crore in Q3 FY22. In USD terms, revenue stood at $553 million in Q3 FY22 rising 8.7% quarter on quarter and 29.3% year on year. Constant currency revenue growth was at 9.2% quarter on quarter and 30.1% year on year. On the margin front, the IT company's EBITDA margin fell to 20.1% in Q3 FY22 from 23.2% in Q3 FY21. EBITDA margin stood at 19.5% in Q2 FY22.

Cadila Healthcare fell 0.93%. The drug company on Thursday announced that it has received final approval from the USFDA to market vigabatrin tablets in the strength of 500 mg. Vigabatrin is used to treat babies, one month to 2 years old with infantile spasms. It is also used in combination with other medications to treat seizure disorders (epilepsy).

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