Barometers trade with small losses; breadth negative

The benchmark indices were trading with small losses in early afternoon trade, dragged by healthcare, auto and IT stocks. The Nifty traded above 18,250 mark.

At 12:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, skid 100.36 points or 0.16% at 61,208.55. The Nifty 50 index slipped 41.85 points or 0.23% at 18,266.25.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index lost 0.46% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.16%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,529 shares rose and 1,806 shares fell. A total of 99 shares were unchanged.

The media reported that Union Finance Minister N Sitharaman will hold a press conference at 4.30 pm today, 18 January 2022.

Overseas, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) left monetary policy unchanged. The BOJ upgraded its inflation forecasts at its policy meeting on Tuesday, but as inflation is set to remain well below its 2% target in the coming years, it stressed its resolve to maintain its ultra-loose monetary settings. The central bank also revised up next fiscal year's growth forecast and offered a more upbeat view on the economy than three months ago.

COVID-19 Update:

In last 24 hours, India registered 2,38,018 new COVID-19 infections in a day taking the tally to 37,618,271, according to the Union Health Ministry data on Tuesday. The country reported 310 new deaths taking the death toll to 4,86,761. The country recorded 1,57,421 recoveries, taking the total number of recoveries to 3,53,94,882. The active cases comprise 4.62% of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 94.09%, the ministry said.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, advanced 2.25% to 17.1425. The Nifty 27 January 2022 futures were trading at 18,282.85, at a premium of 16.60 points as compared with the spot at 18,266.25.

The Nifty option chain for 27 January 2022 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 23 lakh contracts at the 18,500 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 29.6 lakh contracts was seen at 18,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index fell 0.90% to 38,456.95. The index lost 0.95% in two sessions.

Tech Mahindra (down 2.27%), MindTree (down 1.68%), Coforge (down 1.56%), HCL Technologies (down 1.51%) and Infosys (down 0.93%) were the top losers in the IT segment.

Tech Mahindra fell 2.27%. The IT company announced 100% acquisition of Com Tec Co IT (CTC) for 310 million including earnouts and synergy linked payouts. The acquisition will enable Tech Mahindra to tap onto the potential industry disruption in the Insurance sector, expand its offerings to high-end digital engineering services for some of the largest insurance, re-insurance and financial services organizations globally and scale its nearshore delivery presence. Tech Mahindra is also investing a cumulative amount of 20 million, in SWFT and Surance, for a 25% ownership in each of these two InsurTech ventures funded by the same founding group as CTC.

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