Market extends losses; Nifty slides below 18,300

The key equity indices declined further and hit fresh intraday low in the afternoon trade. The Nifty slipped below the 18,300 mark after hitting the day's high of 18,473.35 in early trade. Healthcare, pharma and IT stocks advanced while media, oil & gas and metal shares declined.

At 13:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 409.95 points or 0.66% to 61,292.34. The Nifty 50 index declined 113.40 points or 0.62% to 18,271.90.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index slipped 0.60% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index shed 0.90%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,151 shares rose and 2,291 shares fell. A total of 146 shares were unchanged.

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, surged 5.84% to 14.5850.

SEBI tweaks buyback rules:

On Tuesday, market regulator SEBI said it will allow listed companies to utilise 75% of their surplus funds for share buybacks instead of 50% earlier. SEBI has said that these buybacks will be slowly phased out from the secondary market exchange platforms and conducted on a separate window. This is to ensure transparency in the tender process. SEBI said it will also cut the time for share buyback to 66 days from the present 90-day period.

Gainers & Losers:

Divi's Laboratories (up 4.26%), Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (up 2.90%), Cipla (up 2.35%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 1.56%) and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (up 1.33%) were top Nifty gainers.

Adani Enterprises (down 3.64%), Britannia Industries (down 2.02%), Maruti Suzuki India (down 1.68%), UltraTech Cement (down 1.52%) and Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) (down 1.36%) were major Nifty losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Jubilant FoodWorks rose 1.36%. The QSR chain operator announced on Tuesday that the 20-minute delivery has been introduced in 20 zones across 14 cities in India.

City Union Bank slipped 5.24% after the bank said that the Reserve Bank of India has discovered divergence in additional gross NPA for the financial year ended March 2022, amounting to Rs 259 crore. The RBI conducted the on-site Inspection for Supervisory Evaluation (ISE) for the ended March 2022 from 7 October 2022 to 18 November 2022 and the final meeting concluded on 19 December 2022.

The private lender bank stated that divergence to the tune of Rs 259 crore consists of 13 borrower accounts with an outstanding balance of more than Rs 1 crore for an amount of Rs 230 crore and 218 borrowers with an outstanding balance of less than Rs 1 crore for an amount of Rs 29 crore. Out of these 231 borrowers, five accounts have already been classified as NPAs by the bank during first half of FY23 and 57 accounts stand close.

Bharti Airtel shed 0.82%. The telecom major on Tuesday announced that it has acquired about 8% stake in technology startup, Immensitas (Lemnisk) under its Start Up Accelerator Program. Lemnisk is a Bengaluru based start up that offers real-time marketing automation and secure customer data platform (CDP) capable of orchestrating 1-to-1 personalization and cross-channel customer journeys at scale that increases conversions, retention, and growth for enterprises.

Gail (India) fell 1.99%. The company announced that it has issued 15,750 senior, unsecured, listed, rated, taxable, non-cumulative, redeemable, NCDs of Rs 10 lakh each aggregating to Rs 1,575 crore, having a coupon rate of 7.34%.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks traded mixed on Wednesday after Wall Street ended its four-day losing streak as global bonds rose after the Bank of Japan adjusted its yield curve control tolerance. Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Chief Executive John Lee is reportedly scheduled to travel to Beijing as part of his annual visit until Saturday to brief state leaders on the city's economic, social and political situation.

US stocks closed slightly higher on Tuesday after four sessions of declines, but investors fretted about weak holiday shopping and rising bond yields added pressure after the Bank of Japan's (BoJ) surprise tweak of monetary policy.

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