Benchmarks pare losses; US Dow futures turn positive

The domestic equity benchmarks came off the day's low in mid-afternoon trade. The Nifty reclaimed the 14,600 mark. A spike in domestic and global bond yields coupled with rising coronavirus cases spoiled investors' appetite for risk assets.

At 14:21 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 1546.09 points or 3.03% to 49,493.22. The Nifty 50 index was down 437.20 points or 2.90% to 14,660.15.

Meanwhile, the US Dow Jones 30 Futures bounced back and was trading up 50 points, indicating a flat to positive opening in the US market today.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index declined 1.50% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index lost 0.57%. Both the indices outperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1001 shares rose and 1851 shares fell. A total of 167 shares were unchanged.

The government will release the GDP numbers for the October-December quarter of the current fiscal on Friday.

Numbers to Track:

The yield on 10-year benchmark federal paper rose 6.233% as compared to its previous close of 6.182%.

In the foreign exchange market, the partially convertible rupee fell to 73.1750, compared with its previous closing of 72.43.

MCX Gold futures for 5 April 2021 settlement shed 0.06% to Rs 46,213.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, rose 0.26% to 90.37.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for May 2021 settlement lost 68 cents to $65.43 a barrel. The contract slipped 0.11% or 7 cents to settle at $66.11 a barrel in the previous session.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index was down 1.97% to 24,382.20. The index gained 0.38% in the previous session.

Tech Mahindra (down 3.99%), TCS (down 2.74%), Wipro (down 2.56%), Infosys (down 2%), Mphasis (down 1.56%), Larsen & Toubro Infotech (down 1.48%) HCL Tech (down 1.21%) and Info Edge India (down 0.86%) declined.

Meanwhile, MindTree (up 0.91%) and Coforge (up 0.34%) advanced.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Nava Bharat Ventures surged 5.6% to Rs 74.5. The company proposes to buyback shares at maximum price of Rs 100 each. The aggregate consideration of the buyback shall not exceed Rs 150 crore. At the maximum buyback price and the maximum buyback size, the indicative maximum number of equity shares that can be bought back would be 1.5 crore shares, which would be 9.18% of the total number of equity shares of the company.

NTPC rose 1.25% to Rs 109.30. The company announced that Unit-2 of 800 MW of Gadarwara Super Thermal Power Station (2 x 800 MW) is declared on commercial operation w.e.f 00:00 Hrs of 01 March 2021. With this, the commercial capacity of NTPC and NTPC group will become 52115 MW and 64880 MW, respectively.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News