Benchmarks trade flat; metal stocks slump

The key equity indices were trading near the flat line in morning trade. The Nifty managed to hold above the 17,400 mark. Metal stocks continued to witness sell off for the fourth day in a row.

At 10:22 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 12.35 points or 0.02% to 58,503.28. The Nifty 50 index added 5.80 points or 0.03% to 17,402.70.

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rose 1.65% to 17.78.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index slipped 0.65% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 1.47%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 822 shares rose and 2042 shares fell. A total of 125 shares were unchanged.

Global shares slumped amid concern about China's crackdown on the real-estate sector and the debt crisis at developer China Evergrande Group.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 229,049,749 with 4,699,564 deaths. India reported 309,575 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 445,385 deaths according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

A total of 81,78,68,213 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the country so far, with over 96.18 lakh doses being given yesterday, according to the Co-WIN dashboard.

Economy:

The Reserve Bank of India will conduct open market purchase of Government Securities under the G-Sec Acquisition Programme (G-SAP 2.0) for an aggregate amount of Rs 15,000 crore on 23 September 2021. Simultaneously, the bank will also sale government securities under Open Market Operations (OMO) for an aggregate amount of Rs 15,000 crore on the same day.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Metal index slipped 0.21% to 5,298. The index has declined by 9.58% in four sessions.

APL Apollo Tubes (down 2.56%), Hindustan Zinc (down 2.26%), Ratnamani Metals Tubes (down 1.52%), Adani Enterprises (down 1.04%) and NMDC (down 0.99%) edged lower.

Meanwhile, Welspun Corp (up 1.27%), JSW Steel (up 1.24%), National Aluminum Co. (up 0.93%), Coal India (up 0.55%) and SAIL (up 0.28%) bucked the trend.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) fell 1.20% to Rs 739.95. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved proposed acquisition of 10.40% equity shareholding of Gangavaram Port by the company.

Kolte-Patil Developers jumped 5.81% to Rs 326.5 after PGIM India Mutual Fund acquired 5 lakh equity shares of the company via bulk deal on Monday, 20 September 2021.

PGIM India Mutual Fund bought 5,00,000 equity shares (or 0.65% stake) of Kolte-Patil at an average price of Rs 314.36 per equity share via bulk deals on the NSE yesterday, 20 September 2021. The total amount invested is Rs 15.71 crore.

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