Market opens on a weak note

The benchmark indices are trading weak in early trade on negative global cues as the Omicron variant returned to focus. At 9:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, dropped 346.34 points or 0.59% at 57,937.08. The Nifty 50 index lost 94.05 points or 0.54% at 17,274.20.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.26% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.20%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,387 shares rose and 1,135 shares fell. A total of 116 shares were unchanged.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 2,743.44 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net buyers to the tune of Rs 1,351.03 crore in the Indian equity market on 13 December 2021, provisional data showed.

Economy:

India's retail inflation rate, which is measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose to 4.91% during the month of November 2021, as per the data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Monday. The inflation has increased sequentially, as it was recorded at 4.48% in October 2021. Year-on-year, however, a dip has been registered as the rate of inflation in November 2020 stood at 6.93%.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Wipro fell 0.25%. The IT major announced Wipro VisionEDGE, a digital signage and omni channel advertising solution, to expand its sports, retail, transportation, and entertainment offerings. Formerly known as Cisco Vision, Wipro VisionEDGE offers a converged platform for innovation, and allow brands to manage, and stream content to deepen customer engagement.

Ircon International rose 1.61%. The firm emerged as the lowest bidder for a project floated by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). The value of the project is approx Rs 1,107 crore. The completion period of the project is two years.

PB Fintech lost 0.38%. The company said its board of directors considered and approved incorporation of the wholly owned subsidiary to carry on the business of an Account Aggregator (AA) and investment in MyLoanCare Ventures. The AA has to be licenced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The incorporation will leverage the facility without external dependency on another Account Aggregators for information gathering, cost saving /revenue housing and offer solutions.

Raymond slipped 0.37%. On Monday, Raymond announced that the company's board of directors will meet on 17 December 2021 to consider and approve the issuance of Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs) aggregating up to an amount not exceeding Rs 100 crore on private placement basis.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks declined on Tuesday, 14 December 2021 as the Omicron variant returned to focus. The Asian Development Bank on Tuesday trimmed its growth forecasts for developing Asia for this year and next to reflect risks and uncertainty brought on by the new Omicron coronavirus variant. The lender now sees 2021 gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 7% for developing Asia, down from 7.1%, and 2022 growth of 5.3%, down from 5.4% in September.

"COVID-19 has receded in developing Asia, but rising infections worldwide and the emergence of a fast-spreading variant suggest that the pandemic will take time to play out," the ADB said in a supplement to its Asian Development Outlook report.

Wall Street ended lower on Monday, with shares of Carnival Corp and several airlines tumbling as investors worried about the Omicron coronavirus variant ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting later this week. Investor focus will be on the Fed's latest two-day policy meeting, which kicks off on Tuesday. After the meeting wraps up on Wednesday, the Fed is reportedly expected to announce that it will speed up the pace of tapering its asset purchasing program.

Caution on the new omicron variant prevailed again as the U.K. reportedly confirmed Monday that at least one patient infected with the new omicron variant of COVID-19 has died in the country. China also reported its first omicron case, as per reports.

The University of Oxford published results on Monday showing two doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines are substantially less effective at warding off omicron compared to previous variants of the coronavirus.

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