Market declines in early trade

Key benchmark indices edged lower in early trade tracking weakness in Asian peers and overnight slide on Wall Street. At 9:15 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell 152.07 points or 0.46% at 33,022.32. The Nifty 50 index dropped 40.55 points or 0.4% at 10,143.60.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.5%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 0.63%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

Overseas, Asian stocks dropped tracking overnight slide on Wall Street. US stocks closed sharply lower yesterday, 27 March 2018, erasing earlier gains, as a decline in the broader tech sector brought the major indices down. Last week, reports emerged alleging that Cambridge Analytica, an analytics company, had gathered data from 50 million Facebook profiles without users' permission, raising concerns over data privacy.

Closer home, the broader market depicted weakness. On the BSE, 760 shares declined and 238 shares advanced. A total of 27 shares were unchanged.

State Bank of India (SBI) was down 1%. The bank announced that the committee of directors for capital raising approved allotment of 29.25 crore equity shares on preferential basis to the Government of India, at Rs 300.82 per share, aggregating to Rs 8799.99 crore. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 March 2018.

Wipro rose 0.48% after the company unveiled its Texas Technology Center in Plano, Texas. The company also plans to ramp up its headcount in Texas to 2,000 over the next few years from 1,400 now. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 March 2018.

Reliance Industries (RIL) was off 0.69%. Reliance Eagleford Upstream Holding LP (Reliance), a subsidiary of both Reliance Holding USA, Inc and RIL, announced the signing of a purchase and sale agreement with Sundance Energy Inc, to divest its interest in certain acreage, producing wells and related assets in the western portion of its Eagle Ford shale position for approximate consideration of US$100 million, subject to certain customary adjustments and closing terms and conditions. This transaction is in conjunction with sales made by Pioneer Natural Resources USA Inc and Newpek LLC, the other working interest owners in the joint development with Reliance.

The assets being sold are located in Atascosa, La Salle, Live Oak and McMullen Counties, Texas and were not part of near term development plan of the joint development. Reliance continues to retain its interest in the remaining Eagle Ford assets that are core to its development priorities. The sale is expected to close in Q1 June 2018 and is subject to customary closing conditions.

Sundance Energy Inc. doesn't belong to the promoter group and the transaction does not fall within related party transactions. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 March 2018.

On the macro front, the total revenue received under Goods and Services Tax (GST) for the month of February 2018 (received in February/March upto 26 March) has been Rs 85174 crore. 1.05 crore taxpayers have been registered under GST so far till 25 March 2018.

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