Broader markets extend underperformance; auto shares fall for 5th day

The key equity benchmarks continued to trade with limited losses in early afternoon trade. The Nifty traded continued to trade below the 17,350 mark. Auto shares witnessed selling pressure for fifth consecutive session.

At 12:29 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 361.57 points or 0.61% to 59,102.36. The Nifty 50 index lost 131.20 points or 0.75% to 17,334.60.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 1.27% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 1.31%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 817 shares rose and 2,596 shares fell. A total of 179 shares were unchanged.

A stronger-than-expected U.S. inflation, possibility of further rate hikes and a more hawkish Federal Reserve coupled with uncertainty over the recovery of the Chinese economy weighed on investor sentiment.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rose 2.78% to 14.58. The Nifty 29 March 2023 futures were trading at 17,422, at a premium of 87.4 points as compared with the spot at 17,334.60.

The Nifty option chain for the 29 March 2023 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 28.6 lakh contracts at the 18,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 46 lakh contracts were seen at 17,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Auto index fell 1.97% to 12,615.05. The index has fallen 4.27% in five trading sessions.

Bajaj Auto (down 4.94%), Samvardhana Motherson International (down 4.49%), TVS Motor Company (down 3.26%), Eicher Motors (down 2.99%) and Tata Motors (down 2.56%) were the top losers.

Among the other losers were Mahindra & Mahindra (down 2.23%), Hero MotoCorp (down 1.79%), Balkrishna Industries (down 1.73%), Sona BLW Precision Forgings (down 1.67%) and Bharat Forge (down 1.54%).

Stocks in Spotlight:

One 97 Communications (Paytm) rose 2.17%. News reports suggested that Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti Group was looking to buy stake in the fintech company.

According to the media reports, Sunil Mittal, the founder of Bharti Enterprises, wanted to merge Airtel Payments Bank with Paytm Payments Bank through a stock transaction and also wanted to purchase Paytm shares from other shareholders.

However, some other media reports suggested that the talks between Bharti Group and Paytm did not progress as the management of the fintech company declined to give up management control.

Vishnu Chemicals shed 0.47%. The specialty chemical maker on Monday announced that its board has approved the investment of upto Rs 1,000 crore for development of green field project in the states of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.

Venus Remedies added 3.92%. The company said that it has received good manufacturing practices (GMP) certification from Saudi Arabia for all its production facilities at its unit in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh.

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