Indices at day's low; breadth remains strong

Equity indices hit the day's low and traded with deep losses in afternoon trade. The Nifty slipped below the 16,500 mark. Auto, banks and financial stocks were under pressure while metal stocks continued their uptrend.

At 13:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell 409.75 points or 0.74% at 55,075.53. The Nifty 50 index shed 118.3 points or 0.71% at 16,487.85.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.29% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.35%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,062 shares rose and 1176 shares fell. A total of 124 shares were unchanged.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for May 2022 settlement jumped $6.51 to $119.44 a barrel. Crude oil prices surged after the OPEC and its allies on Wednesday decided to hold production steady despite the recent dramatic spike in oil prices. Higher crude oil prices could increase India's fiscal deficit, current account deficit and stoke fuel price inflation.

India's merchandise export in February 2022 was $33.81 billion, an increase of 22.36% over $27.63 billion in February 2021 and an increase of 21.88% over $27.74 billion in February 2020. Meanwhile, India's merchandise import in February 2022 was $55.01 billion, an increase of 34.99% over $40.75 billion in February 2021 and an increase of 45.12% over $37.90 billion in February 2020.

COVID-19 Update:

Maharashtra government on Wednesday eased COVID-19 restrictions, allowing shopping complexes, restaurants, cinema halls and theatres to function at full capacity in 14 districts, including Mumbai. Swimming pools, religious places, entertainment parks are also allowed to function at full capacity in 14 districts including Mumbai.

In last 24 hours, India on recorded 6,561 new cases taking active caseload in country to 77,152 patients. The country's daily positivity rate stood at 0.74%.

Nifty Gainers & Losers:

Coal India (up 3.19%), Wipro (up 3.03%), PowerGrid Corporation of India (up 2.8%), Tech Mahindra (up 2.35%) and HCL Technologies (up 1.94%) were top gainers in Nifty 50 index.

Asian Paints (down 4.72%), UltraTech Cement (down 4.6%), HDFC Life Insurance Company (down 3.17%), Dr. Reddy's (down 3%) and Shree Cement (down 2.89%) were top losers in Nifty 50 index.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Vedanta added 0.36%. The mining major has declared a third interim dividend for the fiscal year 2021-22 of Rs 13 per equity share. The record date for the purpose of payment of the dividend is 10 March 2022.

Supreme Industries rose 0.53%. The company said that it has received letter of intent (LoI) for supply of 7,35,186 units of 10 kilogram (KG) capacity composite LPG cylinders valuing about Rs 170 crore from Indian Oil Corporation. The company expects to execute entire quantity of this order over a period of 12 months.

KDDL rose 1.34% to Rs 817.95 after the company's precision engineering business division, Eigen Engineering, received an export order and entered into production agreement with a global vehicle company.

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