Indices trade with modest losses

The market traded in a narrow band with modest losses in mid-morning trade. The Nifty continued to trade below its 20 days simple moving average placed at 12,213.54. Shares traded lower as investors appeared to be wary about the fast-spreading coronavirus, which started in the China's Wuhan city. Investors also turned cautious ahead of the Union Budget on Saturday, 1 February 2020.

At 11:22 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 167.93 points or 0.4% at 41,445.26. The Nifty 50 index was down 54.2 points or 0.44% at 12,194.05.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.39% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.44%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was almost even. On the BSE, 1028 shares rose and 1040 shares fell. A total of 137 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, 14 stocks gained while 36 stocks declined.

Q3 2019 Results:

Prestige Estates Projects rose 3.45% to Rs 394.40 after consolidated net profit rose 178.49% to Rs 161.80 crore on 154.48% surge in net sales to Rs 2680.90 crore in Q3 December 2019 over Q3 December 2018. Consolidated profit before tax (PBT) surged 185.09% to Rs 311.6 crore year-on-year (YoY). Tax expense jumped 71.53% to Rs 70.50 crore during the period under review.

Wendt (India) fell 3.86% to Rs 2759.25 after consolidated net profit declined 59.56% to Rs 2.20 crore on 22.61% decline in net sales to Rs 33.16 crore in Q3 December 2019 over Q3 December 2018. Consolidated profit before tax (PBT) fell 58.44% to Rs 2.98 crore year-on-year (YoY). Tax expense fell 47.73% to Rs 0.92 crore during the period under review. The result was announced after market hours on Friday, 24 January 2020.

The result was affected due to sluggish demand from almost all major user industries like automobile, steel, engineering, cutting tools and refractories on the domestic front and also lower offtake from global customers due to continued industrial slow down.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Yes Bank (down 0.7%) is banned from trading in NSE's F&O segment for today after the security crossed 95% of market wide position limit.

Biocon declined 2.11% to Rs 288.25 after the US drug regulator issued a Form 483 with five observations for the company's API manufacturing facility. At the conclusion of the inspection of the Bengaluru facility, which took place between 20 and 24 January 2020, the agency issued a Form 483, with five observations.

Vodafone Idea declined 1.32% to Rs 5.97 after credit rating agency Crisil downgraded ratings of company's Non Convertible Debenture (NCDs) to CRISIL BB from CRISIL BBB-. The rating agency clarified that the downgrade is on account of expectation of a significant deterioration in company's financial risk profile on account of the potential payout against the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) related liability, post the dismissal of the review petition by the Supreme Court.

Foreign Markets:

Most Asian markets were shut for the Lunar New Year holidays. Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped over 2% after the Chinese authorities warned of Coronavirus spreading further with contagion like threat internally in China.

US stocks skid on Friday on concern the spread of China's coronavirus may disrupt travel & trade and slow global economic growth.

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