Benchmarks at day's low; European stocks decline

The key equity barometers pared all gains and slipped into the negative terrain in the afternoon trade. The Nifty slid below the 16,850 mark after hitting the day's high of 17,026.05 in the early trade. Healthcare, pharma and metal stocks saw buying demand while IT, consumer durables and financial services stocks saw a bit of selling pressure. Investors awaited the outcome of a key meeting of the RBI's monetary policy committee due this week for domestic cues.

Trading was volatile as traders roll over positions in the F&O segment from the near month September series to October series. The September 2022 F&O contracts will expire today, 29 September 2022.

At 13:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 167.91 points or 0.30% to 56,430.37. The Nifty 50 index lost 41.25 points or 0.24% to 16,817.35.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.30% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.08%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,695 shares rose and 1,619 shares fell. A total of 148 shares were unchanged.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s six-member Monetary Policy Committee began on 28 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%.

Gainers & Losers:

Hindalco Industries (up 2.86%), Apollo Hospital Enterprise (up 2.56%), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) (up 2.49%), Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (up 2.42%) and ITC (up 2.38%) were top Nifty gainers.

Asian Paints (down 4.39%), Tech Mahindra (down 2.37%), Titan (down2.08%), Larsen & Toubro (L&T) (down 1.69%) and Hero MotoCorp (down 1.51%) were major drags.

Economy:

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday (28 September 2022) approved the release of additional installment of Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief at 4% to Central Government employees and pensioners due from 1 July 2022.

The additional financial implications on account of this increase of Dearness Allowance to Central Government employees are estimated at Rs 6,591.36 crore per annum; and Rs 4,394.24 crore in the financial year 2022-23 (i.e. for a period of 8 months from July 2022 to February 2023).

The additional financial implications on account of this increase of Dearness Relief to pensioners are estimated at Rs 6,261.20 crore per annum; and Rs 4,174.12 crore in the financial year 2022-23 (i.e. for a period of 8 months from July 2022 to February 2023).

Stocks in Spotlight:

Torrent Pharmaceuticals advanced 2.55% after the pharma company said that the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) had inspected its manufacturing facility at Indrad, Gujarat from 19 September 2022 to 28 September 2022. At the end of the inspection, the company was issued a Form 483 with 3 observations.

Adani Green Energy advanced 0.56%. The company has announced the commissioning of 600 MW wind-solar hybrid power plant at Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. The plant has power purchase agreements (PPA) with SECI at Rs 2.69 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for 25 years, the power producer said.

Tata Consultancy Services declined 1.19%. The IT major said that it is helping CareScout in its purpose-led journey to help American families access quality long-term care in a timely and effortless manner by connecting them with the right care facilities through a marketplace.

Global Markets:

The Dow Jones index futures were down 347 points, indicating a negative opening in the US market today.

Shares in Europe declined while Asian stocks traded mixed on Thursday.

US stocks staged a comeback on Wednesday as the Bank of England said it would intervene in the bond market to stabilize conditions.

The Bank of England said on Wednesday that it would buy as many long-dated government bonds as needed between now and October 14 to stabilise financial markets, and added that it would postpone next week's start of its gilt sale programme.

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