Benchmarks slip into the red; Nifty below 16,600 level

The benchmark indices reversed trend and slipped into the negative terrain in early afternoon trade, dragged by auto stocks. The Nifty dropped below the 16,600 mark.

At 12:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell 71.37 points or 0.31% at 55,397.53. The Nifty 50 index shed 29.10 points or 0.18% at 16,576.85.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.10% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.74%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,285 shares rose and 901 shares fell. A total of 137 shares were unchanged.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for May 2022 settlement spurted $4.23 to $117.16 a barrel. Higher crude oil prices could increase India's fiscal deficit, current account deficit and stoke fuel price inflation.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, dropped 6.79% to 27.2475. The Nifty 24 February 2022 futures were trading at 16,645.55, at a premium of 68.70 points as compared with the spot at 16,576.85.

The Nifty option chain for 31 March 2022 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 23.2 lakh contracts at the 18,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 50 lakh contracts was seen at 16,500 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Oil & Gas index rose 1.19% to 7,443.30. The index surged 6.94% in four sessions.

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) (up 5.27%), Adani Total Gas (up 5%), GAIL (India) (up 3.41%), Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) (up 2.08%) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL) (up 1.56%) were the top gainers in the Oil & Gas segment.

Reliance Industries (RIL) shed 0.56%. Reliance Strategic Business Ventures (RSBVL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL), announced a joint venture with Sanmina Corporation (Sanmina) for electronic manufacturing in India. Sanmina is a leading integrated manufacturing solutions company. It provides end-to-end manufacturing solutions and support to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) primarily in the communications networks, cloud solutions, industrial, defense, medical and automotive markets. Sanmina and RSBVL have entered into an agreement to create a joint venture through an investment in Sanmina's existing Indian entity (Sanmina SCI India, "SIPL"). RSBVL will hold 50.1% equity stake in the joint venture entity with Sanmina owning the remaining 49.9%.

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